By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

GALLERIA Cinemas has shut down and made its employees redundant after the COVID-19 pandemic weakened its business, according to Director of Labour Robert Farquharson.

He said employees of the once-thriving cinema have filed trade disputes with his department, alleging they did not receive the benefits they should get.

“The employees of the Galleria have been made redundant by their employer and the Department of Labour has a number of trade disputes that’s going through the process,” he said yesterday. “It’s related to the fact that the company has closed as a result of the pandemic. We have had a number of complaints about the payments of benefits and it’s going through the legal process of conciliation. Conciliation is the first stage. We’re trying to see if we can resolve the matter before it gets to the Industrial Tribunal.”

 Mr Farquharson could not say when the theatre officially closed its doors or how many people were affected. Chris Mortimer, president of Galleria Cinemas, neither confirmed nor denied the company’s closure or that of his other Mall at Marathon-based business - Outback Steakhouse - when contacted for comment yesterday.

 “I’m not actually going to comment on this at the present time,” he said. “With all due respect, at this point I don’t want to have any comments about that.”

 The pandemic likely exacerbated the challenges the cinema has faced since Fusion Superplex entered the market. In November, Mr Mortimer told Tribune Business the pandemic accelerated the development of Netflix and other streaming services, causing more and more people to access movies digitally rather than leave their homes and visit the theatre.

 His comment came after the government adjusted COVID-19 restrictions, removing the curfew, therefore permitting late night showings. He said demand for cinema showings was down as much as 85 percent compared to pre-COVID.

 At the start of the pandemic, Galleria officials appeared optimistic they could manage the crisis, reducing ticket prices from $10 to $7.

 Another business in the area, Outback Steakhouse, has also closed down and made employees redundant. In 2020, Tribune Business reported that Outback Steakhouse restaurant was owned by Island Bloom, a company whose shareholders are Mr Mortimer and his mother, Mary.

 Mr Farquharson could not say when or how many people were affected by the Outback Steakhouse closure.

 Otherwise, he said few businesses have made employees redundant even after labour force protections implemented during the height of the pandemic have faded away.

 “There have been very few trade disputes filed overall,” he said. “Very few complaints. I’m not really surprised. I think Section 28 of the Employment Act was geared towards giving the employers an opportunity to catch themselves as a result of the pandemic (helped). The majority of the employers began to re-engage persons in the fourth quarter of last year. And so by the time the date, February 12th came about, a number of persons had already been re-engaged and so the amount of people that had to be made redundant was very, very small.

 “Some people actually chose not to continue and a number of persons would’ve asked the employer to facilitate redundancy because they would’ve used the monthly monies to start new businesses. You’d be shocked at the amount of people as a result of the pandemic and the layoffs who found alternative ways. They were very innovative and they created a number of businesses.

 “The persons who were made redundant and had a complaint, like in the Galleria Cinemas and the next company was Outback, those persons would’ve been made redundant. Some of them would’ve claimed, and we’re in the process of having those matters resolved, but there were very, very few complaints we received as a result of persons not being paid redundancy pay.”