A THOMAS Cook call centre worker has told how staff were asked into the office for training – then left to deal with stranded holidaymakers.
The employee, who did not want to be named, was part of the fallen travel giant’s Glasgow team.
She spoke to The National on condition of anonymity after being told to sign a non-disclosure order as part of a Sunday training exercise that quickly turned into crisis management.
The woman revealed how her frontline team was given minimum guidance and a script to work from then left to face customers whose holidays were collapsing along with the company.
Most of those who called in were being told to stump up hundreds of pounds for hotel rooms as a result of the company’s fatal troubles.
The 178-year-old firm went bust yesterday morning after failing to secure a deal with creditors and shareholders to solve its £250 million crisis – but had been advertising holidays online until the end, and continuing to place recruitment ads for staff in Scotland.
Yesterday it was unclear just how many of the firm’s 9000 UK staff are based in Scotland.
The UK Government’s Insolvency Service told The National it did not have “this level of information” and the Scottish Government said it has not yet had confirmation of the total.
Company head Peter Fankhauser said liquidation was a “matter of profound regret”.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the collapse would be “devastating for the company’s many workers”, adding: “My thoughts are very much with them and their families.”
And Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said: “This will be a very worrying time for employees in Scotland, and Scottish staff based overseas, and we recognise these job losses will have a disproportionate impact on women. We have already made the offer of support for affected employees in Scotland through our Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (Pace) initiative.
“Through providing skills development and employability support, Pace aims to minimise the time individuals affected by redundancy are out of work.”
The employee who spoke to this newspaper told of the “stress” of her final hours of service, saying: “We were called in to do an emergency job in a day’s training on Sunday – to cope with what we now know was the effects of the failure of the company. We went live later the same day and most of the calls were from people who were being held captive in their hotels in different locations until they’d paid their bills.
“We were given a prepared script to read from. It was very stressful.”
Thomas Cook advertised posts in Saltcoats, Cumnock and Irvine within the last few days, also seeking applicants for posts elsewhere in the UK.
Altogether, 22,000 jobs are at risk worldwide, and while Thomas Cook India has stressed that it is owned by a Canadian parent company and has not collapsed with the Manchester firm, its shares took a major hit after the news broke.
On the final Thomas Cook flight from Las Vegas to Manchester, a whip-round started by a “Scottish girl” generated an estimated £5000 for the air crew, who learned the company had entered liquidation after taking off.
Passenger Tommy Laing said staff were told they would not be paid this month and “were all in tears”, posting on Facebook: “Soon as we landed a Scottish girl stands up – right folks, I’m having a whip-round, get your money out, £20 each. And if that’s not the most Scottish thing ever, I don’t know what is.”
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is co-ordinating the repatriation of other passengers in the biggest peacetime operation of its kind.
Downing Street has defended the decision not to use public funds to bail the company out, with a spokeswoman saying: “A bailout would not have been a good use of taxpayers’ money. We would have had to repatriate people later down the line and have lost more money in the process.
“It is obviously a very competitive market and it isn’t the Government’s role to prop up companies when this sort of issue arises.”
However, “serious concerns” about bonuses paid to company directors, and their conduct, will form part of the Insolvency Service investigation.
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