Thomas Cook liquidation News and analysis
Spain falls mainly on...
fingers are being pointed at executives and the government. Meanwhile employees abroad go unpaid, hears RACHEL SHARP
is going under but parliament was
suspended so there were no urgent
questions in the House.”
The events of the last two months
have been largely reminiscent of
Monarch Airlines’ 2017 collapse,
where almost 2,000 employees lost
their jobs.
Pauline Prow was chief people
officer at Monarch at the time and is
now HRD at Hitachi Rail Europe.
While Prow says Thomas Cook
leaders “will have been troubled” by
where the business was heading, she
believes they “would have been
optimistic they could get it over
the line”.
According to Prow it’s important
that leaders – and the HR team –
now rally to support the workforce.
At Monarch HR helped wind down
the business. But Prow also took the
“unusual” step of requesting that
HR be allowed to provide
“outplacement support” for
employees, including careers fairs
and workshops to help with
applications, interviewing and
CV writing.
“The first few weeks are a massive
outpouring of grief and people feel
more comfortable being upset in an
environment that is familiar to
them, so us hosting events in various
locations and with familiar faces was
all part of helping people come to
terms with the situation,” she says.
While Atkins has found HR at
Thomas Cook “really helpful” since
the collapse, there’s been challenges
with HR systems because unpaid
suppliers have discontinued access.
“So my holiday pay has been
declined because there is no record
of it anymore,” he says.
The struggle is also far from over
for many staff overseas. One worker
in Spain, who wishes to remain
anonymous, said around 1,000 staff
on Spanish contracts with Thomas
Cook’s subsidiary In Destination
Incoming are still required to go to
work even though they have not
been paid since August.
She tells HR magazine that she
has worked as a resort manager in
Spain for 17 years and was
transferred from a UK contract to a
Spanish contract a few years ago.
“There’s no people left in the
resort on a UK contract but we
haven’t been dismissed,” she says.
“Under Spanish law we have to
come into work and do eight hours
because if we don’t it’s classed as
abandonment of our jobs and they’d
take it as resignation – and we’d lose
all chances of getting any money if
we quit.”
Because staff are still employed
they can’t claim state benefits or find
other paid work, she says. One
colleague risks being made homeless
because the landlord who owns the
staff accommodation she lives in
hasn’t been paid by Thomas Cook.
“We can’t close this chapter in our
lives – we’re stuck in limbo,” she says.
Hopefully a solution is found
quickly for workers in this
predicament. And hopefully lessons
are learned to avoid similar
casualties in future. After all, as
Balgobin warns: “Thomas Cook isn’t
going to be the first company to go
bust in this fashion.” HR
Some overseas staff
aren’t on British
contracts and still
have to work
without pay
This is the key question the
government inquiry should answer,
Barker explains: “In retrospect it
seems likely the board – and not
just the current board – made
decisions that failed. But were those
reasonable decisions that didn’t
work out or were they failures
of governance?”
Based on what’s known so far
Barker believes it was “the former”
rather than “major flaws”.
However, some feel the
government also has questions to
answer. It chose not to save the
company, saying it didn’t want to
set a precedent for bailing out
struggling firms. But it then
emerged in the inquiry that no
ministers spoke to the British firm
in the six days leading up to its
collapse, unlike ministers from
Bulgaria, Greece, Spain and Turkey.
Labour’s shadow business secretary
Rebecca Long Bailey described this
as “a clear dereliction of duty” and
called for an inquiry into the
government’s actions.
Boris Johnson’s decision to
prorogue parliament during this
crucial time could have played a
part, says Balgobin. “Usually there
would be questions when a business
We can’t close
this chapter in
our lives – we’re
stuck in limbo
All Photographies: AdobeStock
hrmagazine.co.uk November 2019 HR 11
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