Budget Travel Company News

Swedish owners must not walk away from Irish responsibilites

25 November 2009: The Swedish parent company of Budget Travel must pay proper redundancy terms to its dismissed workforce and ensure Irish holiday makers are looked after, the TSSA travel union said today.

"Primera Travel are a very wealthy Scandanavian company and they cannot just cut and run from Ireland," said union general secretary Gerry Doherty.

"They have a duty to ensure all staff who have lost their jobs today get a proper redundancy package and to make sure that all those on holiday with them at the moment get home alright.

"This is a company which last year turned over over 850 million euros so whatever their current problems in the Republic, they can certainly afford to help staff who have been loyal to them down the years."

The union had a public scrap with the Swedish owners-branding them as modern day Vikings-when they closed 14 shops and axed 95 jobs in September. Today's announcement means the closure of the remaining 17 shops and a further 172 jobs.

"It looks as though our battle was part of a two step exit strategy," added Mr Doherty.

"This is a shock to the remaining staff but it underlines the lack of commitment by large multi nationals to their overseas workforce. It is all to easy for them just to pull out and dump their Irish workforce."

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