Thomas Cooks it for loyal staff

The payments are a thank you to employees who took a pay cut following the 11 September terrorist attacks.

Workers at the firm's headquarters in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, will receive the loyalty payments before Christmas.

About 1,800 members of staff had their wages reduced by between 3% and 15% last year.

Employees will now get the money back - plus an additional 10% of the amount they agreed to have cut from their salaries.

The company has also said it will introduce improved levels of annual leave, maternity and paternity pay, training and long service awards.

Employees have also received three extra days annual leave as a gesture of goodwill and managers have promised to provide enhanced travel discounts for staff.

Only workers earning more than £10,000 were asked to take the voluntary cut.

The company said the move had been forced upon it after a massive slump in the number of holidaymakers booking overseas breaks.

'Trading profit'

However, in July, following pressure from unions, the company announced business had improved so dramatically that workers would get their money back.

Alan Stewart, chief executive of Thomas Cook UK, said: "The overall results this year will show that Thomas Cook UK has achieved a very strong turn around in its financial performance.

"In essence, we have turned a loss-making trading performance into a profit - a result we could not have achieved without the support of our colleagues across the UK."

Full results are due to be released in March next year.

In the wake of last year's terrorist attacks, 100 members of the company's HQ staff were made redundant, cutting the Peterborough workforce to 2,000.