Employees of the IMC Cinema in Enniskillen have been told by a director of the company this week that they will not be put on furlough because of “cash flow issues”.

However, last week, when staff queried why they couldn’t be put on furlough as part of the government’s job retention scheme, it is claimed the same director told them that he couldn’t get into the office to set it up.

“He has decided now that the reason he is not putting staff on furlough is because of cash flow issues. He’s decided to change his story,” alleged an employee at the Enniskillen IMC Cinema, who wishes to remain anonymous.

On Thursday of last week (April 2) the same employee told this newspaper: “The manager received a phone call last night (April 1) from the director of the Irish cinema group as he had been sending several emails to see if we were eligible or if we could get this 80 per cent. Unfortunately the manager received the phone call, directly from the director, stating that he will not be giving or offering the job retention scheme as he is not able to access the office.”

“Now the head office is in Dublin and he himself is based in Dublin as well,” said the employee on April 2, adding: “He is under the impression that due to the Irish government, he is unable to attend the head office to get this set up. That’s quite shocking because the IMC Cinema Group also own an IT company so they actually have access to all 20 odd IMC sites. So it was a bit shocking then to hear that that’s their excuse for not offering furlough.”

This week, the director informed the employee via email that furlough wasn’t an option because of “cash flow issues” in the limited company which owns the Enniskillen IMC Cinema.

The email seen by The Impartial Reporter from the director to the employee stated: “We are aware that there is the Government Furlough scheme, however due to the decrease in cashflow in Castle Entertainment Centre Limited, the company would be unable to pay each employee as it does not have the financial resources (due to cash flow issues) under the Furlough scheme at present.”

“As you would be aware under the Furlough scheme, the employer must pay a minimum of 80 per cent of the employee’s income which will be reimbursed. As we are currently closed, we do not have any money coming in.”

“We would not be able to place all the employees on Furlough. We did not want to have some employees on the scheme and some laid off as this would be unfair.”

The employee said: “He’s decided to change it from us being told that we are not getting it because he can’t get to the office, now it’s because he can’t get the cash flow.”

The IMC Cinema in Enniskillen was closed due to the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March. As of a letter dated March 18, employees understood that they were being laid off temporarily with the intention that they would resume work when the cinema would reopen on March 29.

“We were obviously closed there up until March 29 which is when we were temporarily placed on hold to reopen. But that has not happened. The government then introduced the job retention scheme. The IMC Cinema Group is a Southern Irish company and down in the Republic of Ireland, the government set up this scheme within three days and as far as we are aware, the IMC cinemas down south have been able to access this 80 per cent furlough.”

The employee noted that the advice passed on from the director to employees last week was for them “to get a job and come back when this is all over”.

“Get a job and expose ourselves to this Covid-19 or be at a higher risk of it which is obviously going against government guidelines of stay at home,” said the disgruntled employee, who has worked for the company for almost 10 years.

The Impartial Reporter contacted a director of the company for further clarification, but there has been no response at the time of going to press.

“It’s very much the fact that the IMC Cinema Group do not wish to help us at this point.

“I’m possibly going to look for redundancy at this point, because furlough is not going to be happening at this point by the look of things,” said the IMC Cinema employee.

 

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