The government faces accusations of an “inadequate, muddled and confused” response to the financial troubles at Thomas Cook.
The Unite union claimed that a lack of action led to the collapse of the travel group.
Unite said that a series of Freedom of Information requests it had lodged had “exposed the disarray and the failure of two government departments to even examine alternative solutions” before the failure in September.
The union said that it had asked the same questions of both the business and transport departments, but had received “different and conflicting answers”.
The business department said that it had been officially notified by the transport department about financial problems at Thomas Cook on September 11, 12 days before it ceased trading.
However, the Department for Transport said that it had become aware of problems at the travel group “ahead of the publication of its year-end financial results in November 2018”.
This followed a profit warning issued in September 2018.
More:Fosun ‘in discussion with suppliers’ ahead of Cook OTA relaunch
Comment: The cost of Thomas Cook’s failure
Calls for fresh inquiry into government handling of Thomas Cook collapse
When asked when the Department of Business Energy & Industrial Strategy became aware of financial problems at Thomas Cook, the department said: “As the lead department for Thomas Cook, DfT [Department for Transport] officially notified BEIS about financial problems at Thomas Cook on 11 September 2019.
“At the point DfT made us aware of the imminent collapse of Thomas Cook in September, BEIS became part of the cross-government handling of the issue.”
In response to further questions about when BEIS began to examine measures to help support the company and a question about when it began to take measures to deal with the collapse of the company and repatriate passengers, it said: “BEIS participated in discussions with DfT and other government departments about ways to respond to the potential insolvency of Thomas Cook from 11 September 2019.”
But the union said the responses from the Department for Transport was different.
The DfT said it became aware of problems at Thomas Cook “ahead of the publication of its year-end financial results in November 2018.”
When Unite asked when did the DfT begin examining measures to help support the company, it replied: “Thomas Cook’s directors wrote to the government on 18 September 2019 to request financial assistance of up to £250 million. Given the financial issues the group faced, this would have been poor use of taxpayer’s money and would not have guaranteed that the group would have remained solvent.”
Thomas Cook, which served 22 million customers across the UK, Germany and northern Europe, went under with total liabilities of £9 billion.
Failure to assist the Thomas Cook Airlines has prompted Unite to call on the government to implement the Airline Insolvency Review and the Insolvency and Corporate Governance Review “at the earliest possible opportunity”.
By implementing these measures – first highlighted following the collapse of Monarch in 2017 – airlines which went into administration could continue to fly, creating the opportunity of a rescue bid, according to the union.
Unite assistant general secretary Diana Holland: “Given such an inadequate, muddled and confused response it is little surprise that the government was unable or unwilling to prevent Thomas Cook collapsing into liquidation. The left hand literally didn’t know what the right hand was doing.
“That is why Unite is calling for greater transparency and the right for workers’ and trade unions to be informed and have a voice at the table.
“The real victims of the government’s incompetence are the dedicated staff who lost their jobs and the hundreds of thousands of people who had their hard earned holidays ruined, delayed or disrupted.”
She added: “The BEIS [Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy] select committee began examining the collapse of Thomas Cook prior to the general election and that good work must be continued and extended to the transport select committee, so the full truth behind this sorry mess is not only exposed, but action taken to prevent it ever happening again.”