Hays Travel, the holidays agency that took over Thomas Cook last year, has been given additional contract work on Britain’s faltering COVID-19 Test and Trace system – and staff have been banned from speaking about it publicly, openDemocracy can reveal today.
Customer service staff at Hays Travel, who have been working as subcontractors for Serco and French company Teleperformance, have had to sign confidentiality agreements that warn that if they speak to the media, the Track and Trace contracts could be terminated. But call handlers who spoke to openDemocracy expressed concern about inadequate training and poor treatment of staff.
The UK’s COVID-19 testing regime has been heavily criticised. Dido Harding, head of NHS Test and Trace, admitted that as many as 750,000 requests for tests go unanswered every day. Earlier this week openDemocracy revealed that outsourcing giant Serco had been given a new £45m contract to provide COVID-19 test centres, despite widespread criticism of its performance to date.
