Genting Casinos are reportedly going to keep three of its UK casinos closed permanently with redundancies expected to be announced across its remaining 29 casino properties, according to union leaders.
Reported on G3newswire.com, the selected casinos are those in Bristol, Torquay and Margate with the operator unveiling plans to its workforce as its attempts to mitigate the loss of revenues following the COVID-19 lockdown.
Genting chief executive Paul Willcock said in a letter: “The coronavirus pandemic has caused unprecedented challenges. This has had a huge financial impact on our business and caused significant uncertainty for the foreseeable future. I am therefore forced to contemplate some very difficult options to ensure survival.”
GMB, the union for leisure and hospitality workers, expressed concerns that the three closures are ‘just the start’ for the UK’s leisure and hospitality sector.
Matt Roberts, GMB Union South West regional organiser, commented: “GMB will explore every avenue with Genting to try and keep these jobs, no matter how hopeless the situation in the sector may appear.
“The casinos, like other leisure venues, have done their duty and complied with the lockdown, following the Prime Minister’s instructions and utilising the Government’s furlough scheme. As the scheme ends, GMB fears this is just the beginning of widespread job losses across the sector that will hit local communities hard.”
He concluded: “If the government wants this country to retain a leisure and hospitality industry, we need to see support measures continue, in some form, that we can gradually wean the businesses off as the situation hopefully improves over the next year or so.
“Otherwise there will be very little hospitality and leisure businesses left for the public to go back to.”
