RITZY PAY ROW: Staff vote in favour of strike action

Staff at the Ritzy cinema have voted in favour of striking
Staff at the Ritzy cinema have voted in favour of striking

Union members at the Ritzy Cinema, Brixton, have voted in favour of strike action in an ongoing dispute with bosses over pay.

The ballot closed on Monday afternoon. According to the union BECTU, 85 per cent of union members voted in favour of striking.

Staff are lobbying bosses to bring their hourly rate in line with the London Living Wage, currently set at £8.80.

BECTU supervisory official, Willy Donaghy, said: “We’ve invited the company to make an improved offer; however if this does not materialise then strike action will take place in the coming weeks.”

Picturehouses management have been critical at the prospect of strike action saying: “It is important that everyone has their say, but industrial action will not speed up the process towards better pay for everyone – in fact it could well hinder our aims for this.”

Last week bosses at the Ritzy banned the April issue of the Bugle for covering the dispute.

5 COMMENTS

  1. Doesnt surprise me at all that Picturehouse Cinemas treat their staff in this way. The best thing to do, as a customer, is to avoid going there until the matter is sorted. Lets hope staff at their other cinemas have the guts to fight for decent pay,

  2. Doesn’t sounds like much of negotiation to me, pay or we will go on strike!
    I certainly think that any pay increase should be accompanied by a drop in the ‘attitude’ of staff at the Ritzy. And before you all say that maybe the ‘attitude’ is because of their dissatisfaction with their pay, I would say regardless, their pay is not the fault of the public, so they should not take out their grievances on the public.
    If the ‘attitude’ continues then I will not go back to the Ritzy at all, I rarely do now, instead I generally go to the chain Odeon in Streatham where the staff are much more pleasant and it is much more child friendly.

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