NEWS ing the trade in a T ravel Weekly webcast. Ben Ireland reports
EGAL IONS ERED
been dismissed and they say, ‘Well, I didn’t want to go to work because my health and safety was at risk’. You can only really answer that question once they’ve been through that whole analysis and dialogue process.
CHARGEBACKS Q.What can we add to our terms and conditions for future bookings to best protect us from credit card chargebacks? Bousfield: If it’s a package holiday, the Package Travel Regulations are going to supersede whatever you put in your terms and conditions. If you’re an agent, you need to make it as clear as possible in your T&Cs
Cancellation charges: ‘Imposing fees is tough’
Travel retailers can enforce cancellation charges on customers who cancel an upcoming holiday because they “don’t fancy it” – but Travlaw experts admitted it was a “tough message” to give customers. Travlaw senior counsel
Stephen Mason pointed out the legal uncertainty of customers’ rights to cancel under the Package Travel Regulations, which list 10 “significant changes” that would entitle a customer to a refund. He said a requirement for a
customer to wear a face mask would be unlikely to count as a “significant change”, but that bars, restaurants and nightclubs being closed in destinations might be deemed a significant change if, for example, the package was described as “right in the heart of the action”. Mason highlighted another
scenario. “What happens if the customer still doesn’t want to go, either because they simply ‘don’t fancy it’ or because they don’t want to face a 14-day quarantine on return to the UK?” he asked.
It’s tough to tell
consumers they’re going to lose their money because they’re disinclined to travel
He said travel companies could
legally enforce their cancellation charges in the two examples he gave, citing a “disinclination to travel” from customers. But, he noted: “Saying what the answers in law are doesn’t make it easy. It’s a tough message either way. It’s tough to tell consumers they’re going to lose their money because of a situation when it’s understandable they don’t want to go.” Mason also pointed out that tour
operators who had taken bookings since the start of the pandemic were now “even less likely to be able to get refunds from suppliers” on those bookings than for bookings made before the crisis. “There’s no easy answer,” he added.
Furlough rules: ‘Scheme’s details need clarifying’
The “devil will be in the detail” on how the extension of the chancellor’s furlough scheme might affect job losses. The Coronavirus Job
Retention Scheme was extended last week to the end of October. Travlaw employment law
specialist Ami Naru pointed out the scheme will exist in its current guise only until the end of July. “From August through to the
end of October, I think the devil is going to be in the detail as to how that scheme is going to be operating,” she said. The government indicated
that that is what you’re doing to make it as clear as possible to banks, and to provide evidence that the customer agreed to those clearly at the time of booking.
REDUNDANCY PAY Q. If I’m made redundant while on furlough, will I still get redundancy pay? Naru: Yes. What will probably happen is you’ll serve out your contractual notice period while on furlough but you’ll get your statutory contractual redundancy pay on top if you’ve been there more than two years. If you haven’t been there for two years, you’re not entitled to it.
REFUND ADMIN FEE Q.We’ve usually paid airline refunds straight to the customer. But there’s a strain on staff now and we are making nothing out of these bookings. Should customers be contributing to these costs? Gatenby: It depends. If as an agent you’re having to deliver a full refund on behalf of a package organiser, then it’s a full refund, full stop. If you’re an agent acting on behalf of a single element, or non-package, then potentially you could apply an admin fee. Most people don’t, because of the pushback customers give on that. It also runs the very real risk of being considered an unfair term.
that it will introduce the option for firms to bring staff out of furlough part-time, and split the cost of 80% of their salary with the government. “Until we know what that
detail is, we can’t really work out how that’s going to impact employers, because some may not have any work for their staff to come back to do in August,” Naru said. “The industry had a lot of
customer queries that needed to be dealt with at the outset of this crisis. Those queries may have died down by August. I suppose it depends on to what extent the travel industry picks up.”
SPECIAL REPORT
travelweekly.co.uk
21 MAY 2020
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PICTURES: Shutterstock
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