Thomas Cook workers arrested by Police

kravmaga

Latest from TV3 on this dispute

04.07.09

Workers who staged a sit-in protest at Thomas Cook on Grafton Street have been arrested, after failing to obey a final court order to leave the premises yesterday evening.

This morning, a heavily pregnant member of staff has reportedly been taken to the Coombe Hospital.

Gardai are understood to have entered the travel agents at 5am this morning and arrested around 30 of the protestors.

They were taken to the Bridewell Garda Station and are expected to appear in court this afternoon.

A rally in support of the protesting workers, who are seeking an improved redundancy package, was held outside the travel agents yesterday.

Union representatives attended a High Court hearing, after the workers refused to obey an order to leave the store.

This morning they have vowed to continue their protest.

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I feel sorry for the workers as they have had long service with the company and this is the way they are treated trying to stand up for decent redun dancy package from Thomas Cook.

Its a sad state of affairs.........

Nody

There is legislation specifying how much redudancy must be paid; guess what anything else is optional only and does not have to be paid. If you wish for more and then decide to flaunt a court order you deserve to go to jail for stupidity if nothing else.

Shelflife

According to the company the grafton street branch was losing money for years.

AARRRGH

Nody wrote: »

There is legislation specifying how much redudancy must be paid; guess what anything else is optional only and does not have to be paid. If you wish for more and then decide to flaunt a court order you deserve to go to jail for stupidity if nothing else.

I agree.

RangeR

Can someone clear this up for me?

I've heard a lot about this over the last few days but not once did I hear reported, was the actual redundancy terms that were offered.

Can someone fill me in?

Then I can stand back, point and judge accordingly.

Bren1609

They were offered 5 weeks pay for each year of servicutory redundancy. Statutory redundancy is 2 weeks for each year capped at €600 per week i.e. €1200 per year.

A salary of €600 pw is €31,200 per year.

RangeR

Bren1609 wrote: »

They were offered 5 weeks pay for each year of servicutory redundancy. Statutory redundancy is 2 weeks for each year capped at €600 per week i.e. €1200 per year.

A salary of €600 pw is €31,200 per year.

Thank you.

Now I start judging and finger pointing....

I really don't see their problem, from a legal standpoint. They are being offered way more than the Statutory minimum. They may not see this as fair and may think that they deserve more. Legally, this is not their decision to make.

I don't mean to make light of the situation but ...
/me points finger in disapproval

they don't have a leg to stand on.

AARRRGH

Bren1609 wrote: »

They were offered 5 weeks pay for each year of servicutory redundancy. Statutory redundancy is 2 weeks for each year capped at €600 per week i.e. €1200 per year.

A salary of €600 pw is €31,200 per year.

So Thomas cook are being quite generous?

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

AARRRGH wrote: »

So Thomas cook are being quite generous?

yep, but the workers are holding out for 9 weeks pay per year of service :eek:

AARRRGH

Hitchhiker's Guide to... wrote: »

yep, but the workers are holding out for 9 weeks pay per year of service :eek:

Why only 9? They should ask for 20.

RangeR

AARRRGH wrote: »

Why only 9? They should ask for 20.

I would think if they were going to be THAT cheeky, they should hold out until they got their jobs back....

BroomBurner

Hitchhiker's Guide to... wrote: »

yep, but the workers are holding out for 9 weeks pay per year of service :eek:

They requested 8 weeks, not 9. Thomas Cook offered them 5, the staff wanted to negotiate to get 8 but TC said no negotiation.

With TC's projected profits for this year at €400mill, you can't blame the staff (who will have very little hope in getting work elsewhere) for trying to get something extra for all the profits they have brought in over the years.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

BroomBurner wrote: »

They requested 8 weeks, not 9. Thomas Cook offered them 5, the staff wanted to negotiate to get 8 but TC said no negotiation.

With TC's projected profits for this year at €400mill, you can't blame the staff (who will have very little hope in getting work elsewhere) for trying to get something extra for all the profits they have brought in over the years.

I could very easily be wrong, but weren't the shutdown stores unprofitable?

Fair play on them for trying, but five weeks would seem very generous to a lot of workers that have also lost their jobs. over the last 12 months.

BroomBurner

Hitchhiker's Guide to... wrote: »

I could very easily be wrong, but weren't the shutdown stores unprofitable?

Fair play on them for trying, but five weeks would seem very generous to a lot of workers that have also lost their jobs. over the last 12 months.

On your first point, the store was once profitable. It was profitable enough to hire people only a couple of years ago.

On your second point, sure why wouldn't they? They're facing no employment prospects, better to try to get as much as they possibly can. Why would staff there care about staff somewhere else?

In any case, a company can claim back up to 60% of redundancy money paid out on the two weeks a year limit, so TC (and any other company paying redundancy of the 2 week min) doesn't actually lose out that much.

chocgirl

Yeah I don't have much sympathy for them, a lot of people would have been happy with 5 weeks redundancy

AARRRGH

BroomBurner wrote: »

With TC's projected profits for this year at €400mill, you can't blame the staff (who will have very little hope in getting work elsewhere) for trying to get something extra for all the profits they have brought in over the years.

Thomas Cook's profits are irrelevant.

They have offered a very generous redundancy package.

Anything above the statutory payment should be seen as a bonus rather than something to complain about.

doolox

Given that the travel industry is being taken over by the internet and direct booking online and that the workers will have to completely retrain for something new, 6 weeks per year won't last long.

It took me 1 and a 1/2 years to get a new job after taking redundancy from Intel on similar terms and a lot of that redundancy was gone on living expenses in spite of having JB single rate or it FAS equivalent over the 18 months.
If they have high mortgages and live anywhere near South Dublin city they probably have then they are in deep trouble.