Budget Travel Company News

Vikings return to Dublin to axe Irish jobs

28 October 2009: Sacked staff from Scandanavian owned Budget Travel staged a "Vikings pillage Dublin again" protest outside the company's HQ in Lower Bagot St today.

Dressed as Vikings, more than 30 staff carried placards accusing the company's Norse owners of axing Irish jobs despite carrying 1 million passengers last year and turning over 850 million euros. "Swedes Treat Irish Like Turnips", read one banner.

The Icelandic owners of the group, Malmo based Primera Travel last Friday sacked 70 staff without a penny and closed 14 stores across the Republic.

They have refused to negotiate directly with the staff union, TSSA, and have used a Dublin legal services consultancy to act as their middleman.

The protest, under a large banner saying "Vikings Pillage Irish Jobs(Again), was led by union assistant general secretary, Manuel Cortes.

He accused the group's Icelandic multi millionaire owner, president and chief executive, Andri Mar Ingolfsson, of being "a coward".

"Mr Ingolfsson flies into Dublin every week from Malmo to check his weekly takings. But he has not yet had the guts to face his loyal Irish staff and explain why he is sacking them despite his company carrying 1 million passengers last year with a turnover of more than 850 million euros.

"Instead, he prefers to act like a modern day Viking by throwing them onto the streets last Friday without a penny in compensation and then only agreeing to pay some of them the legal minimum redundancy yesterday after we protested.

"He seems happy to take all the profits back to Malmo in the good times and leave his staff in Ireland with all the grief when the bad times hit. He has treated them with utter contempt"

News Release

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