10,000 signatures reached
To: Rt Hon. Andrea Leadsom Secretary of State for Business, Energy, Industrial Strategy (BEIS)
Support Thomas Cook workers to get the money they're owed
Demand that Thomas Cook workers are paid what they are owed with no delays.
Thomas Cook workers did not cause the company's collapse.
Ms Andrea Leadsom as Secretary of State has the power to instruct the Official Receiver to pay Thomas Cook workers the wages they’re owed.
These workers have families to feed, rents or mortgages to pay. They have been thrown out of work without notice while directors have rewarded themselves handsomely.
No worker should incur bank and interest charges or additional costs as a result of any delay in payment.
Ms Leadsom should restore some modicum of justice in the scandal. Pay the workers now.
Why is this important?
On Monday (23 September) Thomas Cook the world’s oldest travel agency collapsed into administration with the loss of 21,000 jobs (9,000 in the UK alone) and stranding 150,000 holiday makers.
The sudden collapse has left many workers desperate and with no income. Staff were due to be paid on Monday (30 September), but will not now be paid after the business went bust.
Two years since Monarch Airlines went into administration with the loss of 2,000 jobs, the government has totally failed to learn lessons or bring in new laws which could have saved these jobs.
These are not highly paid workers, many were living pay cheque to pay cheque.
Given the dreadful stress this has caused to workers, the priority, now that repatriation of stranded travelled is underway, must be for the secretary of state to fast track the payment of workers’ wages.