Jobs to go as SEC's catering workers laid off

The Scottish Events Campus includes the Armadillo and the SSE Hydro

Catering employees who work at Glasgow's Scottish Events Campus (SEC) are to be made redundant.

Levy UK, the venue's caterers, confirmed on Friday that its casual workers were being paid off.

The business refused to confirm how many staff are affected, but it is understood to be fewer than 500.

Levy said that the ongoing pandemic made it unlikely that catered events would take place at the SEC for the foreseeable future.

In April, the site was transformed into a £38m temporary hospital, the NHS Louisa Jordan, but it has not been needed during the outbreak.

Last month it was confirmed that people who have had healthcare postponed due to the pandemic could be treated there.

The Scottish government has also said the venue could be made ready to accept Covid patients with a few days' notice in the event of a second spike of the virus.

A spokesman for the catering company said the sport and leisure sector had been "one of the most deeply impacted sectors".

He was speaking after the news about the job losses was reported in Glasgow's Evening Times.

With no catered events taking place, or scheduled to do so for the foreseeable future, at the SEC, it was "with deep regret" that the decision had been made to remove casual workers from the furlough scheme and make them redundant.

He added: "This is not a decision we have taken lightly, and we have worked hard to retain and redeploy colleagues where possible

'Alternative to mass redundancy available'

Unite's Bryan Simpson said here were more than 600 workers on their books at the venue, and the "vast majority" of the casual workers were terminated without consultation.

He added that another 85 of those who were either core staff or on fixed term contracts had been informed that they are at risk of redundancy.

Mr Simpson said the way staff had been treated was "nothing short of disgraceful".

"There is an alternative to mass redundancy available till at least 31 October in the Job Retention Scheme.

"Instead Levy are looking to terminate all core and casual staff in the next few weeks because from September they will be expected to contribute a measly 10% towards their wages.

"Casual workers aren't even going to be consulted. They have simply sent them a letter informing them that they will be removed from the furlough scheme in two weeks," he said.

Levy said that as a "responsible business" it would not be appropriate to use taxpayer money to keep people on furlough if they did not anticipate the employees being required in the future.

It also said it had topped up furlough payments to casual workers to 100% of their average earnings for the first two weeks of the scheme.