P&O Ferries will not face criminal charges over its abrupt sacking of nearly 800 workers earlier this year, the UK government's Insolvency Service has said following a months-long probe.

The Dubai-owned company drew widespread condemnation after telling 786 employees, many of them long-serving, in a March videocall that they would lose their jobs with immediate effect.

The move triggered outrage from unions, heightened by the firm promptly hiring foreign agency workers to replace them on less than the minimum wage on its busy cross-Channel and other UK sailing routes.

It also led Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng to ask regulator the Insolvency Service to investigate whether any offences had been committed under criminal and civil laws.

Its criminal probe focused on whether P&O had failed to adhere to 1992 trade union and labour relations legislation.

"After a full and robust criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the employees who were made redundant by P&O Ferries, we have concluded that we will not commence criminal proceedings," it said in a statement Friday.

The service noted an independent senior prosecution lawyer reviewed its criminal probe and concluded there was no realistic prospect of a conviction.

It added the civil investigation remained ongoing, but declined to comment further on that.

Unions criticised the decision not to prosecute P&O.

Nautilus International, a union which represents maritime professionals, said it was a blow to the workers who had been "discarded".

P&O, which suspended its UK services for six weeks at the time of its controversial announcement, restarted most sailings in late April.

DP World, which owns the subsidiary, this week announced record-breaking profits for the first half of the financial year, though the bulk of its revenues are thought to come from other divisions outside its ferries business.

The UK government has said it plans to legislate to ensure ferries sailing regularly in and out of UK ports will be required to pay their employees the equivalent of the country's minimum wage.

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DP WORLD