ATG lays off further 500 staff as it prepares for 2021 reopenings
NEWS
SEP 21, 2020
BY MATTHEW HEMLEY
Ambassador Theatre Group is to lay off a further 500 members of staff, as it prepares for the reality of not reopening its venues until next year.
The Stage understands the staff affected are not being made redundant, with the company instead invoking “lay-off clauses”. The affected staff will be paid a small weekly fee, with the view to their jobs being kept for them for when the company is able to reopen its venues.
It follows news that 1,200 casual and zero-hour contract staff were let go by the company at the end of August, as well as an earlier round of redundancies in June this year.
Across the world, ATG employs about 6,000 people.
It is understood the staff affected by the latest lay offs work in its venue operations arm, and will not be required between November 1 and the end of February, in recognition of the fact ATG’s theatres will not be reopening pre-Christmas.
ATG is hopeful of reopening venues in March, with staff then returning full-time.
A spokesman for the company said: “Against a backdrop of closed theatres, suspended productions and no clarity on a reopening date without social distancing restrictions, ATG has informed individuals working in its venues that it will invoke their contractual short-term working and lay-off clauses after the end of the government Job Retention Scheme.”
He added that a “support team remains in place covering theatre operations, programming, marketing, ticketing, IT, finance, HR and other areas to retain operational readiness”.
ATG’s venues in the UK include the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London’s West End, the Bristol Hippodrome Theatre, the Liverpool Empire and Theatre Royal Glasgow.
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