Monarch workers who woke up on Monday to find themselves jobless have slammed the UK’s aviation regulator as “disgusting and disrespectful” over a tweet they claim tried to glamourise a “traumatic” situation.
More than 1,800 Monarch employees were made redundant overnight when the UK’s fifth biggest airline went into administration this week.
In addition to the huge loss of jobs, the collapse sparked Britain’s biggest-ever peacetime repatriation, with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) tasked with bringing home 110,000 stranded passengers.
But the CAA caused controversy last night after it sent an “inappropriate” tweet asking followers for their snaps.
“Spotted one of our rescue flights?” the post read. “Let us know by tweeting us a picture. #Monarch”.
The tweet quickly sparked a storm of anger amongst former Monarch employees, generating more than 100 replies before it was deleted on Wednesday night.
“As now an ex-employee, I’m disgusted by this tweet,” a man named Mike wrote on Twitter.
“You’re a regulator and shouldn’t be glamourising a traumatic time for us.”
Other workers, still reeling from the shock of losing their jobs, also criticised the CAA for the message:
Others also took to Twitter to slam the authority, calling on the CAA to remember that “people have lost their jobs two months before Christmas”:
The CAA has now deleted the tweet and has apologised “for any offence caused”.
A later message read: “Our focus remains on the flying programme and getting people home”.
The blunder comes after a series of controversies around the collapse of Monarch.
Yesterday, union Unite announced that it was launching legal action on behalf of the scores of former employees left “high and dry”, saying workers should have been given 45 days notice over redundancies.
Meanwhile, it was claimed that some people were forced to ring a premium rate number to find out that they had been made redundant.
Almost 35,000 stranded passengers have now been brought back to the UK by the CAA. The holidays of around 860,000 people were cancelled when Monarch went into administration.