Thomas Cook: Former workers ‘will not receive pay packets as usual’ on Monday
Thomas Cook staff have been told they will not receive their wages as usual on Monday, according to union sources, after the travel giant went bust yesterday.
The 178-year-old firm collapsed under the weight of a £1.7bn debt pile early yesterday morning, after weeks of frenzied attempts to negotiate a rescue deal with its lenders. The failure looks set to cost the jobs of most of its 21,000 employees, 9,000 of whom are in the UK.
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It has now emerged thousands of them will not receive their usual pay packets next week, and instead will have to appeal to the Insolvency Service to be paid for work up until 23 September.
Trade union Unite said this included commissions and flight allowances for cabin crew.
A spokesperson for trade union Unite told City A.M: “Staff have heard they’re not going to get paid. These people have got mortgages.”
“We will liaise with Insolvency Service to ensure [employees] receive six weeks’ statutory redundancy pay.”
Later on Tuesday, assistant General secretary Diana Holland added that banks should “play their part by giving Thomas Cook workers, struggling to pay their bills and mortgages, the breathing space they need”.
“We call on the insolvency service to pay their wages as soon as possible.”
Thomas Cook employees can find out how to make their claims to the Insolvency Service here.
A spokesperson for the Insolvency Service said: “Employees who have been made redundant will not receive their September pay packet from Thomas Cook in the normal manner as the company is in liquidation.
“Employees will need to apply for their arrears of wages for September from the Redundancy Payment Service.
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“All payments made by the RPS are subject to statutory limits.”
The news was first reported by the Telegraph.