THOMAS Cook bosses have been accused of mishandling
the announcement that it is to shed 1,500 UK employees and force staff to take
pay cuts.
The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association,
representing almost 3,000 Thomas Cook employees, warned the company risked
losing the loyalty of its 12,500 UK workforce.
The multiple has already axed 430 staff and urged
employees to take voluntary redundancy or cut their hours.
Staff earning over £10,000 – 55% of the workforce –
are being asked to take pay cuts of 3%-10%, while senior directors have agreed
to a 15% reduction. This will be reviewed early next year.
But the TSSA said staff felt under pressure to take
pay cuts because there was no guarantee of job security.
TSSA development manager Jo Twite said: “If people
have to take reduced pay there needs to be some guarantee there will not be
further redundancies. Staff feel they have no option.”
But chief executive Alan Stewart was confident staff
would understand the decision.
“If the market is significantly down we have to do
what is appropriate. We could have made more people redundant but we felt it
was better to ask people to take a pay cut. Our experience is that people at
Thomas Cook are committed and prepared to work together.”
Thomas Cook is also cutting capacity for winter and
next summer by 15%-20%, closing its London and Bromley offices and dropping up
to four regional JMC Airlines bases as part of a bid to save £140 million over
the next 12 months.
About 400 JMC staff in Bromley and 100 in London face
relocation or redundancy as the group consolidates businesses in Peterborough
and Bradford. Club 18-30 staff will move from London to Brighton.
JMC Airlines is to shut three or four regional air
bases within weeks, where only some ground staff will remain and third-party
carriers will be used instead.
Two aircraft have been moved to Thomas Cook AG’s
Belgium operation and six have been leased to US carriers.
Thomas Cook is in talks with
consultancy company Accenture to set up a shared service centre in
Peterborough, integrating all the UK group’s information technology, human
resources and finance departments. Some staff would become employees of
Accenture, which would be responsible for running the centre.