P&O Ferries paid some crew members less than half the UK minimum wage thanks to an ongoing legal loophole, according to an analysis of recent payslips conducted by the Guardian and ITV News.

Agency workers at the ferry operator, which is owned by the Dubai-based DP World, have in some cases been earning about £4.87 an hour, even lower than the £5.15 an hour the company suggested was its lowest pay rate. The crew of agency workers, who replaced many of the workers P&O dismissed two years ago, are being recruited from countries including India, the Philippines and Malaysia.

While the UK minimum wage now stands at £10.42 an hour and will rise to £11.44 an hour from April, the rates do not apply to maritime workers employed by an overseas agency who work on foreign-registered ships in international waters.

P&O crew members interviewed by the Guardian and ITV News said they worked 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, for up to 17 weeks at a time. The workers said they must remain on the ship until their contract ends. All of the payslips inspected by the Guardian and ITV News were issued to workers from far-flung countries by a Maltese recruitment business, PhilCrew Management, the documents further suggest. PhilCrew was set up on in April 2023 and its sole client is P&O.

Grant Shapps, who was the UK’s transport secretary when P&O fired its workers in March 2022, had promised to legislate to improve pay for cross-Channel ferry workers. He also told P&O he would review its contracts with the government.

However, figures obtained last year by the Labour party showed that about £230 million had been paid to P&O Ferries and its parent DP World by the UK government between March 2022 and July 2023.

A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said the government had “worked swiftly within the parameters of the parliamentary system” to address a “complex issue involving the minimum wage, ports, and international maritime law”. The department is expecting its Seafarers’ Wages Act, which will ensure workers onboard ferries are paid at least an equivalent to the UK national minimum wage, will come into force this summer.

P&O Ferries said it did “not recognise” the pay rates of below £5 an hour and a spokesperson added: “We always pay at least the minimum wage required by national and international law.”

The spokesperson added that all crew on the firm’s Dover to Calais route earned the equivalent of £5.20 an hour, a figure that appears to be higher because it includes holiday pay, according to the Guardian’s calculations.

Meanwhile, the French government is set to respond this week to P&O’s sackings, with the introduction of legislation that will force cross-Channel operators to pay their workers the French minimum wage of at least €11.65 (£9.95) an hour.

A UK Department for Transport spokesperson said, “We have worked at pace to bring forward our Seafarers’ Wages Act, consulting extensively with industry and unions to ensure we have ironclad legislation in place to help prevent this from happening again, while working to strengthen seafarer rights around the world.”

“We expect to bring this into force in the summer, around the same time as French legislation, forming an international minimum wage corridor across the Dover strait.”

Separately last week, it was reported that UK unions have called for proper legal protection for seafarers on the second anniversary of the P&O Ferries mass sackings scandal, warning that ministers have “done nothing” to stop other firms following suit.

A joint statement issued by the TUC, along with Nautilus International and the RMT, called for a mandatory seafarers’ charter with more protection for workers.

It said, “The government has done nothing to stop another P&O Ferries scandal. Despite admitting to acting illegally, P&O Ferries have faced no sanctions and have seemingly been let off the hook. Having feigned outrage at P&O Ferries’ actions, ministers have reneged on their promise to clamp down on bad bosses, failed to deliver an employment bill and failed to close the legal loopholes exploited by P&O Ferries.”

“A basic criticism of the (Seafarers Wages) act is that Nautilus members were not employed on the UK minimum wage,” Nautilus said in a press release. “They are highly trained, highly skilled maritime professionals who benefitted from rates of pay negotiated through decades of collective bargaining. The Act does not end the incentive for P&O Ferries to employ seafarers from abroad on much weaker terms and conditions and pay.”

“Government introduced the Seafarers’ Wages Act last year,” Nautilus and the RMT said in a press release. “The Act requires operators of services calling 120 times or more per year to pay crew at least the National Minimum Wage for work within UK waters. This does nothing to prevent P&O Ferries and other operators from hiring agency seafarers on appalling rates of pay, roster patterns and wider employment rights, even in the channel.”