Nine Town Hall Theatre staff laid off despite assurances

Nine staff at the Town Hall Theatre – who are on Galway City Council’s payroll – have been laid off due to the Covid-19 crisis.

The part-time members of staff – some of whom worked at the venue for more than a decade – were let go temporarily, despite assurances otherwise.

Last week, local authority Chief Executive Brendan McGrath told the Galway City Tribune that there were no plans to lay off Council workers.

But one Town Hall staff member said: “We got an email on Friday saying we are going to be laid off and then I opened the paper and saw Brendan McGrath saying there would be no layoffs.

“I think they just don’t even put us in the same bracket as other Galway City Council employees, but we are, or we are supposed to be, and that is part of the problem,” the worker said.

There are about nine “part-time permanent staff” at the Town Hall who do not have ‘proper’ contracts. Trade union SIPTU has been pushing for contracts to be formalised for a number of years.

A SIPTU official is involved now again, and the issue may be sent to a third-party body to be resolved.

“Staff on full-time permanent contracts are still getting paid, and some are working from home. But the part-time permanent staff were told that we are laid-off temporarily. I understand that the theatre is closed, and a lot of the part-time staff are students. But some of us have been there for many years,” the staff member said.

Unlike subsidiary companies such as Leisureland, Town Hall staff are paid directly by City Council. The Town Hall directed all queries to City Hall.

The Council confirmed the layoffs following queries from the Galway City Tribune this week.

“Further to recent Government announcements and measures introduced in relation to Covid-19, the Town Hall Theatre was closed on the evening of March 12.

“As the Theatre is closed to the public for the foreseeable future, Galway City Council is not in a position to offer hours of work to those with irregular hour contracts.

“Whilst we are not in a position to comment on individual staff members, we can confirm that unfortunately this has resulted in temporary layoffs. The contracts of the affected staff will remain valid once normal service resumes at the Town Hall,” the Council statement reads.
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