Bowling venue account 'laughs' at job losses post from laid off employee
The social media account of a bowling venue that laid off a number of staff "laugh reacted" to a post by a former employee announcing that he had been made redundant.Superbowl UK St Helens confirmed it has laid off five permanent employees and more staff on temporary contracts were informed they would not be returning from furlough.One former member of staff let go by the company said most of those who lost their jobs were informed via email last week, while a number of others received phone calls telling them they were being made redundant.Will Savage, 27, who worked as a floor supervisor at the venue in St Helens posted on Facebook to inform customers and friends that a number of staff at the venue had lost their jobs.He wrote:
He said that the staff had been let go with "no warning, nothing."He added: "Thank you for your patronage and hopefully I'll see you outand about, good luck out there."Screenshots seen by the Liverpool Echo show the official Superbowl UK St HelensFacebook account responded to the post by their former employee by 'laugh reacting'.The activity has since been deleted from the post on Facebook.Former employee Will said:
He continued: "Given how they have handled this, I'm not surprised that when I put apost on my Facebook page to share this with my customers theirmarketing account did a laugh react to my post."The staff that were let go were exemplary. I'm very angry with howthe company has treated us."Luckily I have managed to find another job but I know others who areworrying about their future. I know people who have rent to pay andare now in a very difficult situation."In a previous statement addressing the redundancies, the venue said that it had made the redundancies to "safeguard the future of the business and as many jobs as possible" and said that delays to reopening had forced their hand.Superbowl UK St Helens said:
"We have had to look at re-structuring the business and regrettably,we have had to sacrifice some job losses."We appreciate this decision will have come as a shock, we have had totake urgent action following the announcement delaying our ability toreopen to the public, to safeguard the future of the business and asmany jobs as possible."We informed all staff at the beginning of lockdown that we hoped itwould be a temporary measure but if the situation escalates, it maylead to staff being laid off."The staff that have been terminated were on temporary contracts whichhad ended."We are not in the position to offer permanent employment and had nochoice but to end that employment. We have also made 5 staff redundantand in doing so we have secured the future of 19 remaining workers andthe assurance that the site will be able to reopen in the future."We would like to clarify that we haven't laid off all members ofstaff at Superbowl UK St Helens."We have also made it clear to all staff that have left the businessthat if trade returns to normal, they will be the first people tocontact regarding coming back to work."
Superbowl UK wasvapproached for comment but did not respond.