The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association is seeking to hold talks with Unite about working together.

In a document dated March 2013 seen by TTG, Cook sets out potential changes to workers’ sickness, redun-dancy and overtime, which Tony Wheeler, senior regional organiser for the TSSA, described as “abhorrent”.

Wheeler said that his union would be contacting Unite, with the hope of holding “joint talks”.

“Contractual changes have to be agreed with the trade unions, we want to do it collectively, obviously we might secure some more power if we do that,” Wheeler told TTG.

Along with changes to the retail structure - including the potential 195 store closures and 2,500 job losses - Cook is looking to push through a number of changes to its employees’ terms and conditions in order to deliver “significant savings”.

The company is looking to cut sick pay for “employees who are at an unacceptable level of absence”.

Redundancy terms will also be affected. There will be a minimum of “two years’ service for qualification of payment” with “entitlement capped at 20 years’ service”. The new policy will affect new starters from April 1 and potentially all existing employees from October 1.

Cook, which is part way through a 90-day consultation with staff, is also looking to alter overtime payment, using “promotion of time off in lieu… as [the] preferred method for compensating overtime worked across all businesses”.

“These are going to be permanent changes to people’s contacts of employment. Profits will go up but my members’ conditions of service will get worse…” Wheeler said.

He added the union might consult with its members in the future through a “consultative referendum” and he could not rule out the possibility of strikes.

Meanwhile, the document seen by TTG also contains more details on the company’s recent announcements.

Of Thomas Cook UK & Ireland’s current network of 1,069 stores, only 594 “are profitable”.

Since October 2011 it has closed 168 stores and it is proposing to close a further 195, leaving it with a retail footprint of 874.

Proposed management changes will the removal of the store manager role, with 683 traditional roles, which will be replaced by 236 new “cluster managers”.

A spokesperson for Thomas Cook said: “The company will continue to discuss these proposals with our employee representative groups and unions, and our colleagues will be the first to know of the outcome.”