P&O Ferries' chief executive has claimed it cannot re-hire 800 sailors sacked illegally because it would mean the business going bust.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps yesterday told the ferry group to re-hire the sacked staff otherwise the government would draw up new laws that would force the company to take them back on.
In a reply, Hebblethwaite said to do so would bankrupt the business.
“Complying with your request would deliberately cause the company's collapse, resulting in the irretrievable loss of an additional 2,200 jobs.
“I cannot imagine that you would wish to compel an employer to bring about its own downfall, affecting not hundreds but thousands of families," he said in a written reply to the letter from Shapps.
P&O sacked the staff two weeks without consultation something that Hebblethwaite admitted to MPs last week was unlawful.
The Dubai-owned company replaced the 800 with agency workers on £5.15 an hour or getting on for half the UK minimum wage of £8.91.
In his letter, Hebblethwaite said that the new crewing model it was proposing was common in the industry.
Instead of two crews, it would mean using one crew instead so staff would now be paid for the "actual time they worked plus holidays" instead of "full pay for working 24 weeks a year".
Overnight a second P&O ferry was refused permission to sail due to concerns over its safety systems and staff familiarity with procedures.
The Pride of Kent was detained after a Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) inspection that cited training, equipment and documentation issues.
The European Causeway was held in Larne last week by the MCS for similar reasons.