Thomson staff braced for Christmas job cuts

THOMSON Travel Group is set to make sweeping changes which are expected to lead to a raft of redundancies just before Christmas.

Staff face an anxious 60-day wait while 14 specially formed working parties scrutinise the business following its £1.8 billion takeover by German giant Preussag.

The move follows far reaching proposals to merge a number of key Thomson departments with Hanover-based TUI, the tour operating arm of Preussag.

Thomson’s 25 strong strategic management department, headed by John Wells, has already been disbanded with all functions relocated to Germany. Wells will leave the group at the end of January.