National News

Budget Travel will close 14 Irish shops in next four weeks

Swedish owned Budget Travel have told union officials that they would go ahead and close 14 shops and axe 95 jobs in Ireland in the next four weeks.

The closure programme will start as early as next week when staff will receive their redundancy notices, the TSSA union announced this evening.

The shops that will close are at Athlone, Clonmel, Cork, Dublin (4), Dundalk, Ennis, Finglass, Limerick,Mullingar, Tralee and Waterford.

Gerry Doherty, union general secretary, accused the company of negotiating in "bad faith" since announcing the planned cutbacks six weeks ago.

"They have not moved one inch, on either the number of jobs to go or the fact they are paying only state minimum redundancy payments. This has been a sham of consultation," he added.

He has already reported the company to the Labour Relations Commission for failing to engage in effective and fair consultation.

Budget Travel have a total of 31 shops in the Republic. The closure of 14 shops will cost 75 jobs while a further 20 are being cut in its Dublin head office.

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