Thomas Cook has moved to reassure members after making changes to the governance of its pension plan.
The company has appointed two independent, professional trustees to manage its salary-linked pension scheme.
Previously, the scheme was governed by seven lay trustees, including former Cook staff, and one professional chair.
The business has more than £1.7 billion of pension savings in the UK for current and former employees.
A spokesman said: “Following a review of the running of Thomas Cook Pension Plan, we concluded that pension members’ best interests will be served for the future by moving its governance to professional independent trustees.
“We can reassure members that this change has no impact on the day to day running of the pension plan. We will introduce the new professional trustees to members in our annual newsletter in the autumn.”
One of the new trustees is a former pension actuary and the other is a retired pension lawyer.
The former trustees were informed of the changes at the end of June.
The changes were announced in the ‘Governance’ section on Cook’s website.
A statement adds: “In total we have over £1.7bn of pension savings in the UK for our current and former employees, some of whom are now pensioners. We take the protection of these savings very seriously.
“Pension governance, risk and regulation are becoming increasingly complex and it is important that a professional team is in place to look after pension arrangements for members. In 2016 we strengthened our pension team to work in house managing these pension operations and working with trustees and advisers.
“This change in governance will further improve the effective working of the pension scheme to the benefit of its members.”