NEWS ROUND-UP
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Z Elite Travel Group general manager John Escott has left the consortium
after just over a year. The consortium is dissolving the role in a restructure of its leadership team.
Z ITC Travel Group has appointed Jason Hilton as maternity
cover for sales director Sarah Roberts. Hilton has more than 20 years’ experience in the industry, and was previously at Red Sea Holidays.
Z British Airways has appointed Rogier van Enk from
transatlantic joint-venture partner Finnair as its new head of distribution. He will be tasked with developing New Distribution Capability (NDC) channels with third-party retailers.
Z Protected Trust Services has appointed Mark Sutton as commercial
director. He joins from Jumbotour Group, where he was expansion manager.
Z SeaDream Yacht Club has recruited Jos Dewing to build the
UK business and develop relationships with trade partners. Dewing was previously managing director of Voyages to Antiquity.
Agent diary: “We exchanged details on the flight and within a couple of hours of landing I had a nice £44,000 booking” Sharon Thompson, page 44
Bill Munro hints at legal action after tribunal win
Amie Keeley
Barrhead Travel founder Bill Munro has hinted he could take further legal action after an employment tribunal ruled he was unfairly dismissed from the company. Munro, who founded the agency
in 1975, said he was “delighted” with the outcome but the experience had been a “harrowing, emotional and stressful time”. The tribunal case in Glasgow
came after he was made redundant from an advisory role he was given as part of US firm Travel Leaders Group’s £36 million takeover in 2018, from which he received £9 million. It ruled Munro was “unfairly
dismissed”, but that it was “not practicable” for him to return to the business. Munro will not receive compensation aside from £2,754 to cover his four weeks’ notice. In November, the tribunal heard
Munro was being paid £67 per hour for the advisory role and that he refused to sign a new contract.
Hays takes on 3,000 staff in former Cook stores
John and Irene Hays championed the model of the high street travel agent on BBC’s Breakfast last week, when they revealed Hays Travel has more staff in the 461 ex-Thomas Cook shops it has reopened since taking on the collapsed firm’s 553-branch estate than Cook did. John Hays explained how more than 2,000 of the 2,500 retail
8 23 JANUARY 2020
staff employed by Cook had been retained by Hays Travel, and that 3,000 people were in the shops overall. “What we found is that, like many companies in financial difficulty, [Thomas Cook was] cutting staff; 2,500 staff isn’t
Bill Munro This has been a
harrowing, emotional and stressful time. But I am a strong and determined person
indispensable” to Barrhead Travel. After the decision, Munro
Munro claimed that was because
it did not factor in his 42 years’ continuous service. Travel Leaders ex-boss Ninan
Chacko told the hearing he had “no intention” to sack Munro but was forced to after Munro “threw [the contract] back in their face”. Munro argued he was unfairly
sidelined, but Travel Leaders said he would not let go of management duties and believed himself “utterly
said: “This has been a harrowing, emotional and stressful time. I have had to endure having my life’s achievements traduced in public. But I am a strong and determined person and was never going to lie down. “I am delighted the tribunal has
vindicated me. It has been a traumatic episode at a time when I should be enjoying the rewards of my working life. This was never about the money. It was about much more than that: my reputation and my standing in the industry.” Munro added: “It may be the case
that there will be further legal action in the future.”
John and Irene Hays
on BBC’s Breakfast
enough. We have 3,000 staff in those shops that went down,” Hays said. He also revealed the business had
made more than £2 billion worth of sales in the year its acquisition of Cook stores expanded its network from about 180 to more than 640.
travelweekly.co.uk
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