Brixton Ritzy cinema climbs down over redundancies

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/30/brixton-ritzy-climbs-down-over-redundancies

Version 0 of 1.

Staff at the Ritzy cinema in Brixton, south London, have won their campaign to save as many as 34 of their 93 positions.

The jobs were at threat, Ritzy owner Picturehouse cautioned its staff, on account of the success of their protests over not being paid the current London living wage. Picturehouse’s refusal to make the 21% pay increase to £8.80 per hour had led to staff strikes and calls by locals such as Will Self to boycott the whole Picturehouse chain.

A day after Picturehouse’s rival, Curzon, declared plans to pay all its London front-of-house staff the living wage, the chain appears to have backed down.

Mooky Greidinger, chief executive of Cineworld, Picturehouse’s umbrella company, told the Evening Standard that “[g]roup management was not aware of plans to enter consultations for redundancies at The Ritzy”.

He continued: “I am now making this a group matter and I have decided together with Picturehouse management to put an end to the consultation process.”

However, Cineworld’s finance director Philip Bowcock expressed scepticism about whether the posts could be guaranteed into the future. “There will be no redundancies at this time,” he told the Standard. “You can never say anything is indefinite.”

Willy Donaghy, spokesperson for media union Bectu said strike ballot plans would remain until their members were offered long-term job security.

• Review: Ritzy, Brixton