A major London museum is planning to make 10 per cent of its workforce redundant to survive through the uncertain times.
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has announced proposals to cut jobs for 103 museum and retail staff. More job losses in other departments are expected soon.
A significant loss in revenue
The move comes as like many visitor experiences around the world, the V&A has been hit hard through COVID 19. Under UK government ruling, the museum remained closed for five months.
Now with social distancing measures in place, V&A’s visitor numbers are down by 85 per cent. The imposed safety measures have seen the museum suffer with extreme financial losses feared to be detrimental to the 170 year old museum’s future.
The historic attraction has already received an emergency fund by the government, which has helped to keep the popular museum afloat through the pandemic and aided the adjustment of pre-COVID operations. However, the V&A has stated the money only supports them for the current financial year, which leaves great uncertainty for the museum come 2021.
Ambitious attempts to survive
As a result of this, the museum is now taking action to save £10 million annually to secure its recovery. As well as redundancies, the museum has postponed exhibitions, cancelled staff bonuses, and reduced opening days in a frugal attempt to save as much money as possible.
In the wake of the redundancies announcement, Tristram Hunt, Museum Director at V&A said: “Every colleague plays a vital role in the success of the V&A – their creativity and expertise are unparalleled, and the loss of their institutional knowledge will be felt for years to come.
“We will do everything we can to consult openly and transparently, to support our staff community during this exceptionally difficult time, and to rebuild the V&A once more.”
Victoria and Albert Museum isn’t the only visitor experience to feel the pinch of the pandemic, Hong Kong’s Ocean World is cutting staff wages by as much as 15 per cent to aid its survival.
