Tui UK & Ireland has entered a consultation with staff at its Luton contact centre amid plans to relocate their roles to Swansea.
The Luton News reported that staff were “numb and upset” and “shocked” after being told about the plans only a week-and-a-half ago.
The newspaper quoted one employee as saying staff are being encouraged to take redundancy.
It was reported that 60 roles are affected by the change although Tui declined to confirm the number.
A Tui spokeswoman, told Luton News: “We are sorry to confirm that we are currently in a consultation period with members of our contact centre team based in Luton.
“The proposed changes are not a reflection of the great work they do to serve our customers.
“It is the result of research, consideration and discussion about the future of how Tui UK and Ireland communicates with customers.
“We have offered our colleagues affected by this consultation, the option to relocate to Swansea to join our contact centre team based there.
“Alternatively we are working closely with the Luton-based team to identify other suitable opportunities within the business.”
Tui confirmed the contact centre proposals affect 60 full time employees, fifty of which are proposed to move to Swansea plus two vacant posts.
A further eight posts are having their reporting line changing to retail operations and remaining in Luton.
That means there are 50 full time employees at risk of redundancy in Luton out of 1,900 staff based at the firm’s head office.
Tui currently has 281 advisor posts in Swansea, and the Luton proposals are part of a growth strategy to increase the size of Swansea to 391 full time advisor employees.
As part of this growth of 110 roles over this financial year, 52 posts will transfer from Luton, with 58 new posts being created in the UK.
Tui said it will be growing its number of UK full time employees by 35%.