Bearing the Thomas Cook logo, the document is a computer printout created on June 16 and has details of the incentive payments earned by members of staff.

Worryingly, it includes the names and payroll numbers of 20 people.

“I was totally shocked when I realised what I’d picked up,” said the finder of the document, who asked not to be named.

“Apart from the privacy issue, we’re always hearing about identity theft and being told to shred anything with personal details on it.

“I don’t know what a conman could have done with this information, but it was just lying in the street for anyone to pick up.

“There were more papers blowing around the square and I wasn’t going to chase them to find out what was on them.

“Heaven knows what private information they might have contained.

“I just hope the staff at this place take more care of their customers’ details than they do of their own,” he added.

A Tele photographer dispatched to the scene found that a number of blue bin bags issued by Dundee City Council for commercial waste had been left out for collection at the Thomas Cook branch in City Square.

Unfortunately, at least one had been ripped open by gulls and the contents were spilling out and being blown around the streets.

A spokesman for the company confirmed that the organisation has a policy for dealing with potentially sensitive documents and stressed that this was a one-off incident.

“Every Thomas Cook store has a shredder to ensure safe disposal of confidential information and we’ve reiterated our policy to our staff so that this exceptional case does not happen again,” he said.