National News

Scandavian travel bosses "short change" sacked Irish staff

Scandavian travel bosses were accused today of "short changing" Irish staff they are to sack with the closure of 15 of their shops in Ireland.

Swedish based Budget Travel is to sack 75 staff in the next few weeks when it closes its doors on almost half of its 39 shops in Ireland. Fifteen will close immedietly and another four are under serious threat.

TSSA union leader Gerry Doherty attacked the company's Icelandic owners today as local management told staff representatives that sacked staff will only receive state minimum redundancy of two weeks per year of service.

"It is simply outrageous that this travel group, which last year had an annual turnover of 850 million euros, is planning to pay the minimum it can legally get away with it and even then, the state will pick up 60% of the bill.

"It is hoping to rush this through by cutting the union out of formal negotiations when we would be asking how a successful multi national travel firm cannot afford to pay decent redundancy packages to loyal Irish staff."

Budget is part of the Malmo based Primera Travel Group which operates in Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Estonia as well as Ireland. Last year it carried 1.3 million customers on its budget airline.

The 14 shops closing in Ireland are in Athlone, Clonmel, Cork, Dublin(3), Dundalk, Ennis, Finglass, Limerick, Mullingar, Swords, Tralee and Waterford.

The four under threat of closure are at Bray, Kilkenny, Newbridge and Wexford.

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