Ambassador Theatre Group to lay off 1,200 casual staff as furlough safety net ends

Close to 1,200 casual members of staff working for the Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) will be cut off from the furlough scheme from 1 September.

Bectu, the media and entertainment union, has been lobbying the employer, which owns theatres across the UK, to keep these staff on the scheme.

Zero-hours contract and casual staff who have worked for the theatre will be treated differently depending on whether they have been “regularly engaged” by ATG.

People who have been employed by the same manager for 19 weeks out of the last six months and 26 weeks over the last year will be treated as being “regularly engaged”. This means that they will be taken off the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme and “laid off” with no further payments being made other than the statutory guarantee pay –  £30 per day for a maximum of five days in three months.

Others who are not seen as regular workers will receive nothing. Bectu will be working to support members who want to challenge the decision.

Some of these people have only been entitled to very low monthly payments of around £150 per month through the furlough scheme until now.

The company is also proposing changes to terms and conditions for people who remain furloughed and are still hoping to return to work in the coming months.

Head of Bectu Philippa Childs said: “Casual workers are being cut off from access to the CJRS at an alarming rate and this pattern is set to continue across all patterns of theatre employment. Theatres cannot afford to contribute to the costs of furlough at a time when they still have no idea of when they will realistically be in a position to re-open and despite pilot indoor performances taking place from 1 August.

“Plans for distribution of the crucial arts recovery package have been made public today, but we already know that the money won’t actually be made available to organisations until October.

“Although there are plans that the money should be available to workers and freelancers, the current timetable is still too slow and by October many more people will have been cut adrift from the safety net provided by the CJRS.

“Ultimately, this will result in people leaving the industry at a time when it is on its knees and will desperately need their experience, skills and talent to bring it to life again.”