Thomas Cook offered voluntary redundancy to senior Captains and got more than they needed. I've heard 1.5X annual pay to leave. It was supposedly done to balance a top heavy roster, but there is prrobably a strong business case for it too. I guess this is what happens in a merger when there are twice as many bean counters running "what ifs" through MS Excel. It might inject some new life into the company by lifting a lot of people up the ladder a notch though.
They are still taking people straight out of flight school. They have cadets in training right now and I won't be surprised if they recruit more low hour pilots as well. You won't see an ad for it if they do because they already know where to find them, so you'll have to keep an eye on the FTO employment lists in January. The fact they want some FOs with time on type and will take the low hour non rated cadets as well does support the rumour that they are roster balancing.