NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW 4


Cook vows to improve on 22% gender pay gap


Juliet Dennis juliet.dennis@travelweekly.co.uk


Thomas Cook has joined rival Tui as one of the companies with the highest gender pay gaps in the UK, with women paid on average 22% less than men across the business.


The company, where more than


two-thirds of the workforce are female, admitted it had to take “meaningful action” to tackle the pay gap as well as increase the number of women in senior roles. The starkest pay difference is in


Cook’s airline, where female average pay is 54% lower than men. Within that, its engineering division has a 28% gap while its airline alone pays female staff 58% less. In comparison, Tui Airways UK’s


female staff earn 57% less in hourly mean pay across its whole airline. In Cook’s retail business,


women are paid 14% less on average. This compares with a 10% difference at Tui stores. Across more than 600 Cook stores, 93% of employees arewomen. But bonuses paid to female shop staff at Cook are 19% lower than for men, compared with 23% lower at Tui.


Cook’s female retail shop staff are paid 14% less than men


5 STORIES HOT


Cook blamed its gender pay gap on the “uneven distribution of men and women across the company, not because of our pay policies and practices”, with fewer women in higher-paid roles such as pilots and senior management. Chief executive Peter Fankhauser pledged action. “This report shows we have much to do in the area of gender pay, and I am determined that we take meaningful action


now to give us better balance across the organisation.” Cook has already introduced changes in the past year to combat the pay gap, including gender- balanced shortlists for hiring managers; gender-balanced job descriptions; and ‘unconscious bias’ recruitment training. Companies of 250 or more staff


have to report their gender pay gap by April 4, with many yet to do so.


5 Abta calls for delay to Atol changes


Ian Taylor ian.taylor@travelweekly.co.uk


Abta is demanding a halt to changes to the Atol scheme other than required by new Package Travel Regulations, in force from July 1, until these “bed in”.


The association responded


to consultations by the CAA on ‘Modernising Atol’ and the Department for Transport (DfT) on ‘Updating Atol consumer protection’ last week, urging businesses “be allowed time to


implement the changes necessary for compliance before introducing further changes”. Abta director of legal affairs Simon Bunce said: “We assumed we would get the Package Travel Directive (PTD) sorted out and look at the rest in due course. Some of what the CAA is proposing goes beyond what’s required by the PTD. We were surprised [to hear] it is intended to be in force by July 1. More detail is needed to understand how it would work.” He told Travel Weekly: “The industry has been waiting a


6 travelweekly.co.uk 29 March 2018


“We assumed we would get the PTD sorted out and look at the rest in due course”


long time for clarity about their obligations from July 1 and is still awaiting the final detail.” Luke Petherbridge, Abta senior


public affairs manager, added: “We urge the CAA to prioritise imple- mentation [of the regulations].” However, the CAA declined to clarify whether the changes to


Atol it proposes will be delayed pending further consultation or pushed through from July. A CAA spokesperson said: “The consultation is now closed and we will consider carefully the responses. We’ve previously said there will be transitional arrangements put in place for the transfer to the new process.” Abta warned that a “lack of


clarity” in the definition of a travel “organiser” in the new regulations could cause problems “as traders


seek ways to avoid their liabilities”. › Business, back page


PICTURE: SHUTTERSTOCK


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72