We just received this via email.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Date: Saturday, June 15, 2013
Subject: Blog Entry to be published anonymously
To: youngvicushersunite@gmail.com
Hello bloggers.
Have a blog post for you.
We have received a letter from the Chairman of the Young Vic Board who has requested via email that some facts be made clear.
His email reads:
Thank you for your email.
I have now looked in to this matter and cannot see any proper basis for complaint. It would appear from the anonymous blogging that people are either not in receipt of the facts or have simply chosen to ignore them.
No one has been made redundant. People who were working casually have been invited to apply for four new full time permanent jobs, which we
believe will provide a better service to us and the public, and which will
cost roughly the same as the present system - i.e. this is not being
done to save money. Casual staff have been offered small compensatory
payments.
BECTU have been closely involved and have now put out a statement to the Stage saying that this is good news.
I should therefore be grateful if you would kindly communicate the above facts to the people you are dealing with.
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This is the first official response we have received from the Young Vic. Perhaps the above will change your mind about what has been written on this blog. We do not wish to comment on wider issues at the moment, but want to respond to a couple of points raised above.
1. No one has been made redundant: Six members of the box office team and the theatre officer have been told that their role no longer exists. They have been offered small sums of money and informed that as of 12th July their role will cease to exist. They have been invited to apply for the new positions, but obviously with no guarantee they will get them - should they even want them. However that is seven people (not including front of house duty managers, who have a different agreement) for four jobs. Whichever way you view it people will be out of work. If they have not been made redundant, I don’t know what has happened, but the outcome is the same and it is just semantics.
Regarding the front of house duty managers – strictly speaking they have not been made redundant. Instead they have been told they still have a job, but that between three of them there will be two available shifts in September - that is three months away. You can decide for yourself if that sounds similar to being made redundant.
2. BECTU have been closely involved: Again this is true, however BECTU did not involve the BECTU representative in negotiations, so effectively they have colluded with the Young Vic to get rid of staff without any consultation, except with higher levels of management.
3.They have put out a statement to the stage saying that this is good news: It is staggering to think that a union that is supposed to be protecting a vulnerable workforce sees the loss of jobs, without consultation as “good news”. As far as we’re aware not one single person affected by the changes views them as “good news”.
One final point, the email claims that the new system will provide a better service to the Young Vic and the public. This could be true, we can’t see how the new format will work effectively, but are happy to be proved wrong on that. The main issue is not a fight against change, change is important and necessary, but the way these changes have been implemented is brutal, disrespectful, heartless and unfair.
So now you are in receipt of the “facts” straight from the Young Vic board – please make up your own mind.
This I want to make clear...BECTU would not allow their union rep to be at the initial meeting to discuss the REDUNDANCIES as The Young Vic asked for her not to be there. BECTU complied and went ahead and struck a deal with the YV over the rep's head... may I also add that pressure had to be put on BECTU by FOH staff for them to claim some reasonable ish form of compensation.For whom are BECTU working? This is not the first time they seem to be acting under the duress of the YV.
ReplyDeleteTo The Young Vic Chairman- you are simply using words to cover up the fact people have been made redundant- and it is not clever!- someone previously said talked about semantics- precisely. With no prior warning or consultation the YV has left several women, who struggle to support children, without a wage.. and of course they are already low wage earners. I am sure this is not intentional of course, but what it points to is a complete disregard of duty of care towards a workforce. These are women who have worked long and hard hours in demanding environments for the Young Vic. In your view don't they deserve better or does the YV merely reserve its idealisms for the stage and for actors? This is the kind of behaviour I associate with corporate organisations and cinema chains, not small eclectic independent idealistic artistic organisations. I thought the YV was about social commitment, I thought it was anti just about everything, I thought it strove to treat people as human beings ....I thought I thought I thought...
Please also tell me why the statement posted in the Stage by BECTU nominating the changes as a good thing means that this is the case?
Someone on twitter described today as a massive PR nightmare for the YV. It is. No one really intentioned this perhaps, what is happening is coming out of endless bar discussions between different departments (not just FOH - we are just able to speak out more as in some ways we have less to lose ) , it is a culmination of months and perhaps years of change which is being aggressively implemented, it is coming about because of the walls between departments that are now being created... it is, more importantly, completely organic and therefore more worrying as it is authentic. No one is leaning on anyone to say anything, platforms are just being erected to enable voices to be heard.
I resent the fact the YV is a) demonstrably tweeting to journalists asking them to be quiet (is there something to hide?) b) proffering this as merely a FOH issue and thereby containing the problem - I am sure the YV is very aware that the frustations are not limited to FOH C) putting out small statements thinking anyone is convinced.
The problems go much deeper than front of house. The cracks just show more there.