Macrobert job losses put ‘reputation at risk’
2500 sign petition to save technical staff
The loss of long-serving technical staff from Stirling’s Macrobert Arts Centre “threatens its reputation”.
That was the message from workers this week during an ongoing redundancy process prompted by a 60 per cent drop in the Macrobert’s income since March’s lockdown.
Before lockdown the Macrobert had employed 40 people.
Management pointed out last month that at the end of a consultation process five posts across the organisation will have been made redundant while some staff will work reduced hours.
A spokesperson for the Macrobert technical team told the Observer this week: “The equivalent of four specialised technician roles have been lost, and as one of the two roles retained is currently on maternity leave the capacity of specialised technical skills available to the Macrobert has been reduced by 82.5 per cent.
“[There is a] lack of understanding of the risk to the organisation, with the loss of accumulated strength of a skilled technical team who have been working together for 11 years.
“As with any effective team, what makes them successful is sharing the same goal and for over more than a decade, their single aim has been to work for the benefit of the organisation.
“The fact that the Macrobert has a formidable reputation amongst artists, creators, and both local and peer professional communities, is in no small measure due to the technical department, their shared knowledge and range of expertise, but the key is their capacity to function as a great team for this venue.”
As of Wednesday afternoon this week more than 2500 people had signed a Change.org ‘Save the technical team of Macrobert Arts Centre’ petition.
The petition points out that despite receiving £485,213 in emergency funding from Creative Scotland, Macrobert’s senior management is going ahead with the redundancies.
Macrobert artistic director Julie Ellen said this week: “Out of our four long-serving members of technical staff one has been kept on with reduced hours, one is on maternity leave and two are in the process of redundancy. Those kept on will do maintenance work until we are able to present live work on stage again in a safe and sustainable manner.
“There were two other redundancies, one at officer and
There is a lack of understanding of the risk to the organisation Technical team spokesperson
one at manager level; one in marketing and one in venue and projects (dealing with hires of the theatre and other spaces).
“So out of a typical cohort of 40 staff, 36 jobs remain (although some have taken reduced hours and one is on maternity leave) which was possible largely due to Creative Scotland’s Performing Arts
Venue Relief Fund, of which we are very appreciative.
“Our aim is to stay solvent and deliver arts activities and experiences to the audiences we serve.
“We are retaining as many jobs as we feel we can sustainably support whilst satisfying our charitable purposes.”