Premier Travel has axed its homeworking division after only six months with the loss of 30 jobs.
The move has led to criticism of the way the situation was handled by senior management at the Cambridge-based miniple.
Many of the homeworkers had their telephone booking lines to Premier cut before they found out the division had ceased trading via a fax from head office.
General manager Lindsey Herbert returned to the office on Wednesday after a holiday to hear the news.
She said: “I am totally gobsmacked. We have only been operational for six months. Nothing goes right overnight. We thought we had a two-year plan.
“I expected them to give it a year. No agent is doing very well at the moment.”
Herbert was made redundant and has been given a month’s pay but most of the other homeworkers were self-employed.
Sales supervisor Sharon Plummer also criticised the way the news was communicated.
She said: “The division ceased trading on Wednesday at 11.30am but many people did not get the fax notifying them of the fact until 12.09pm.
“It is an absolutely despicable way to treat people. I told some of the homeworkers to come and work for Premier as it is an established company and would look after them.”
Deputy managing director Greg Mould said the company decided to discontinue the division after reviewing its performance.
He said a fax was sent to all the homeworkers prior to the lines being cut. “But not all of the faxes went through. We cannot help it if some people had their fax machines switched off. Naturally I am sorry it has not worked out.”
Homeworking specialists Travel Counsellors and Instant Holidays are expected to take on some of the 30 staff. Many of them had left Instant to take up the job with Premier.
Premier recently announced it was planning to increase its 15-branch network after Thomson pulled out of talks to buy the company.