Coronavirus: Worthing theatre staff latest to face redundancy

Staff working for the Pavilion and Connaught theatres in Worthing are facing redundancy, as the trust behind them warns its venues may never reopen without action now.

Worthing Theatres and Museum said it was looking at having to make 19 of its 150 staff redundant, with a further 29 employees facing a temporary reduction in salary and working hours. It said the roles affected spanned all departments, but were largely public facing ones.

The trust operates the Pavilion Theatre, the Connaught Theatre, the Assembly Hall and the Worthing Museum.

In a statement, it said: “While we were thrilled to be awarded funding from the Arts Council England Covid-19 Emergency Fund, and have utilised the government’s job retention scheme, without additional support from the government we have no choice but to make the difficult but necessary decision to restructure and are currently in a process of consultation with employees.”

The trust, which was formed last year to take control of the venues, said that being ordered to close after only five months of operation had been an “incredibly challenging situation”.