Redundancy misery for Bangor's Theatr Gwynedd staff

Oct 22 2008 By Jamie Smith

WORKERS of the soon-to-close Theatr Gwynedd will have to wait for their redundancy pay after the theatre went into liquidation.

And the trade union says that it could be a lean Christmas for workers if the money doesn’t come through in time.

The theatre is due to close at the end of the month but last week the board of the theatre released a statement stating that they could not continue to trade due to financial difficulties, and that there would be a delay in redundancy payments.

The statement said: "At a meeting of the board of Theatr Gwynedd Cyf on Wednesday, the financial situation of the company was examined thoroughly. It was decided that the company could not continue to trade because of financial difficulties.

"The board has appointed Robert Rutherford of Licensed Insolvency Practitioners, Parkin S Booth & Co, to act as liquidator.

"The board regrets that this will cause a delay in the payment of redundancy payments to members of staff. These payments will be made at a later date."

John Hamilton, the regional officer for Unite union, said: "We are very disappointed for the union and more importantly for the members.

"I understand that the theatre has a debt of about £90,000 which means that they will not be able to pay the redundancy payments.

"Our members have cooperated fully to ensure that all the final productions took place, and they were very successful and made about £36,000 I believe, but now they feel very let down, they had been reassured that the money would be paid to them.

"It could take six to eight weeks for the redundancy money to come through from the government’s redundancy protection fund, and we are hoping that is the case because it is getting close to Christmas and if there is a big delay then it could be a very bleak Christmas indeed for some of these people.

"It is very concerning that our members now feel distressed, annoyed and upset because it could make the next few months a miserable time for them.

"Unite have campaigned to highlight to the public that there will now be a cultural desert in Bangor without Theatr Gwynedd.

"It could be five years until it is reopened and people will realise the excellent services that have been provided that will no longer be there, especially with the Welsh language productions. A very experienced and strong team of workers have been broken up, it’s very sad indeed."

Last week a 2,000-name petition opposing the closure was handed to the Welsh Assembly’s culture minister but to no avail.