A voluntary redundancy scheme has been announced, with the possibility of compulsory redundancies to follow
Tate has announced it will cut 120 gallery jobs – amounting to 12 percent of staffers – in a £4.8 million cost-cutting drive, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The gallery has announced a voluntary redundancy programme, with employees looking for ‘early retirement, reduced working hours or a career break’ encouraged to apply. Compulsory redundancies will likely follow if not enough volunteers come forward. The cuts follow hundreds of redundacies at Tate Ltd earlier this year, eliminating half of the gallery’s commerical arm.
A statement from director Maria Balshaw and Chief Operating Office Vicky Cheetham set out the damage to the gallery as a result of the pandemic, with extended periods of closure and low visitor numbers: ‘we expect to lose £56 million in self-generated income overall. This kind of loss hits Tate particularly hard, as such a large proportion of the funds we rely on are normally self-generated. The road to recovery will be a long one.’
Tate’s announcement of redundancies across its commercial arm earlier this year triggered waves of protests, with unions alleging that the cuts would disproportionately impact BAME employees. Writing in ArtReview in September, the Turner Prize-winning artist Tai Shani expressed solidarity with the gallery’s striking workers: ‘They are asking for their survival to be prioritised, and for their work – so long essential to the basic functioning of the institution – to be recognised as such,’ she wrote.
‘Since the onset of the pandemic Tate has pursued every avenue to tackle the shortfall. We have argued for and gratefully received Government support and are continuing to make the case for more; we have cut operating budgets in half; we have frozen all but the most essential recruitment; we have cut Executive Group salaries; we have restructured our retail and catering business to save it from closure; and we have taken as much from our emergency reserves as we are allowed,’ Balshaw and Cheetham write in their latest statement. ‘But these measures alone will not address the long-term financial challenges we are facing.’
‘Reducing the size of our workforce is a course of action we take with huge reluctance. The knowledge, experience and passion of our colleagues across Tate is at the heart of our success and is hugely valued. We, nevertheless, have no choice given the impact of the pandemic on our finances.’
