Thomas Cook staff have received a wave of support after it was announced the company went into administration.
Rival airlines, train operators and members of the public have been offering their help to the 21,000 staff who lost their jobs
The government has also pledged support to help those left without work.
Around 21,000 employees, 9,000 of whom are employed in the UK, are to be made redundant after the 178-year-old company ceased trading and went into compulsory liquidation this morning.
Peter Fankhauser, chief executive of Thomas Cook, said it was a matter of “profound regret” that it had been unable to secure a deal to save jobs and fulfil its obligations to customers and suppliers.
“Despite huge uncertainty over recent weeks, our teams continued to put customers first, showing why Thomas Cook is one of the best-loved brands in travel,” he said.
“Generations of customers entrusted their family holiday to Thomas Cook because our people kept our customers at the heart of the business and maintained our founder’s spirit of innovation.”
Thomas Cook’s UK employees have been advised to contact the Insolvency Service for redundancy and other payments. Although redundancy payments are usually paid by the government within 14 days of a claim being received, the Insolvency Service said “special arrangements” are being put in place to pay staff sooner.
Rebecca Thornley-Gibson from law firm DMH Stallard said employees will be able to claim for pay, statutory redundancy, holiday pay and notice payments. “If these are paid promptly, employees will at least have some time to catch their financial breath as they seek alternative roles elsewhere.”
The British Airline Pilots’ Association however have suggested staff do not know whether they will be paid this month. “While detailed plans to repatriate passengers have been carefully put together and ministers have and will continue to claim the credit for that, the staff have been stabbed in the back without a second’s thought,” it said in a statement.
Despite this awful news, Thomas Cook staff still went out of their way to ensure customers were put first, opening up stores to help them following the collapse.
We cannot stress what a loss this is to the travel industry. Our thoughts are with every employee who has found themselves without work following this announcement. For jobs, please take a look on our site today and hopefully we can get you into another job in no time.
