{"id":19896,"date":"2020-01-29T16:45:19","date_gmt":"2020-01-29T16:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=19896"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:54:32","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:54:32","slug":"exposed-thomas-cook-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=19896","title":{"rendered":"‘Sorry mess’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

A series of freedom of information (FOI) requests made by Unite has exposed the disarray and the failure of two government departments to even examine alternative solutions prior to the collapse of Thomas Cook in September last year. As a result Unite is now calling for action to ensure greater openness and that lessons are learned.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite asked the same FOI questions of both the Department of Business Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Department for Transport (DfT) and received different and conflicting answers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The responses to the FOI requests in particular highlights the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entirely inadequate response to support the highly profitable Thomas Cook airline which due to lack of government action was forced into liquidation with the rest of the company, with the loss of 4,000 jobs.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When asked when BEIS became aware of financial problems at Thomas Cook the department said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs the lead department for Thomas Cook, DfT officially notified BEIS about financial problems at Thomas Cook on 11 September 2019. At the point DfT made us aware of the imminent collapse of Thomas Cook in September, BEIS became part of the cross-government handling of the issue.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In response to further questions about when BEIS began to examine measures to help support the company and a question about when it began to take measures to deal with the collapse of the company and repatriate passengers it said:\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBEIS participated in discussions with DfT and other government departments about ways to respond to the potential insolvency of Thomas Cook from 11 September 2019.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

However the responses from the Department of Transport\u00c2\u00a0was\u00c2\u00a0markedly different. The DfT said it became aware of problems at Thomas Cook \u00e2\u20ac\u015bahead of the publication of its year-end financial results in November 2018.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When asked when did the DfT begin examining measures to help support the company, it replied: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThomas Cook\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Directors wrote to the government on 18 September 2019 to request financial assistance of up to \u00c2\u0141250m. Given the financial issues the group faced, this would have been poor use of taxpayer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s money and would not have guaranteed that the group would have remained solvent.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The DfT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s answer to the question of when it began examining measures to deal with the collapse of the company and the repatriation of its customers, was telling. It said: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Department began examining contingency planning options for the eventual collapse of Thomas Cook in April 2019. An initial meeting was convened on 5 April 2019 which was attended by representatives from the CAA, the Department for Business Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Her Majesty\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Treasury (HMT) and UK Government Investments (UKGI).\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Therefore, the only measure that then transport secretary Chris Grayling MP took was to plan for the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s collapse, with no effort made to disengage the profitable airline and keep it flying. While, the department of business was so disengaged they failed to even register when they first became involved in the matter.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The failure to assist the Thomas Cook airline\u00c2\u00a0is\u00c2\u00a0why Unite is calling for the government to implement the Airline Insolvency Review and the Insolvency and Corporate Governance Review at the earliest possible opportunity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By implementing these measures which were first highlighted following the collapse of Monarch in 2017, airlines which went into administration could continue to fly, creating the opportunity of a rescue bid.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Similar rules already operate on the continent and were a major factor in ensuring that the Thomas Cook subsidiaries Condor (in Germany), Thomas Cook Scandinavia and Thomas Cook Balearics continued to fly following the parent company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s collapse.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00c2\u00a0<\/a>
\nSince the collapse of Thomas Cook<\/a>, Unite members who were employed by the airline have recorded extreme difficulty in finding new work and claiming benefits.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite assistant general secretary Diana Holland,\u00e2\u20ac\u015bGiven such an inadequate,\u00c2\u00a0muddled and confused response it is little surprise that the government was unable or unwilling to prevent Thomas Cook collapsing into liquidation. The left hand literally didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what the right hand was doing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThat is why Unite is calling for greater transparency and the right for workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and trade unions to be informed and have a voice at the table.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe one thing that is crystal clear is that\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0so-called\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0098failing\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Grayling has struck again. Even after leaving office his actions were still proving disastrous for the UK transport sector and resulted in a profitable airline being driven to the wall.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe fact that the DfT allowed a profitable airline to collapse without any effort to keep it flying and preserve jobs demonstrates why we need new laws to prevent further needless airline collapses as soon as is humanly possible.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe real victims of the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s incompetence are the dedicated staff who lost their jobs and the hundreds of thousands of people who had their hard earned holidays ruined, delayed\u00c2\u00a0 or disrupted.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe BEIS select committee began examining the collapse of Thomas Cook prior to the general election and that good work must be continued\u00c2\u00a0 and extended to the transport select committee,\u00c2\u00a0so the full truth behind this sorry mess is\u00c2\u00a0not only\u00c2\u00a0exposed,\u00c2\u00a0but action taken to prevent it ever happening again.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A series of freedom of information (FOI) requests made by Unite has exposed the disarray and the failure of two government departments to even examine alternative solutions prior to the collapse of Thomas Cook in September last year. As a result Unite is now calling for action to ensure greater openness and that lessons are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8842,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1233],"wps_subtitle":"Government disarray over Thomas Cook collapse exposed","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19896"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19896"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24741,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19896\/revisions\/24741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}