Don’t make travel trade pay with their jobs for Omicron restrictions

TSSA has called on the government to provide extra funding to protect jobs in Britain's travel trade as new restrictions come into play.

From Tuesday people heading to Britain will need evidence of a negative lateral flow or PCR Covid-19 test result, taken up to 48 hours before travel. This is in addition to all passengers arriving into Britain haviing to take a PCR test on or before day 2 after their arrival.

Nigeria was also added to the red list at the weekend list.

The union says that forcing travellers to pay for new tests in order to come back from abroad will mean many people will cancel their trips rather than pay the extra costs.

TSSA General Secretary, Manuel Cortes, said, “Travel companies are already saying that bookings are collapsing since the new restrictions were introduced last week – and they’ll become tougher from tomorrow.

“We fully understand that these measures are being introduced to try and contain the spread of the virus and have no issue with that.

“But the Government must provide bespoke support for our travel sector including a furlough scheme so that those employed in the sector don't pay with their jobs for containing the spread of the omicron variant.

“In addition, ministers must stop the naked profiteering of some testing companies at a time of a national health crisis by capping the price of PCR tests.

“Otherwise, there’s a very real risk that more workers in the travel trade will get the worst possible Christmas present – their P45.”