Notts PRYZM staff told ‘jobs were safe’ then informed of club closure through group chat

PRYZM Nottingham staff found out they had lost their jobs due to the club shutting down in a work group chat despite being told two weeks before that their “jobs were safe.” 

Staff claim they were informed of their redundancies only a week before it was announced publicly that PRYZM would be shutting down and the venue was seen being gutted.

Over 300 members of staff who worked at the 17 sites owned by REKOM across the country that are also closing were then made to join a mass video call and told they would only receive a redundancy package if they had worked at the company for more than two years. 

Emma*, a Nottingham Trent University student who has worked at PRYZM for the past six months, told the The Tab Nottingham it seemed as though REKOM had known for a while yet “strung along” staff for the past three weeks saying “all is fine.”

Emma claims staff were told last Friday (26th January) that trading would stop for the preceding week but that she and other colleagues only found out about the actual shutting down of the club via a social media post from PRYZM’s DJ appealing for work.

“The DJ Just James posted on his instagram and this was the first time the employees found out about the closure,” Emma told The Tab Nottingham.

His Instagram post read: “Well today’s turned into another grim day for the nightlife in the UK. More venue closures with immediate effect from a company who apparently put its people first.

“This means I’m now available on Friday nights out and will no longer be at PRYZM Nottingham.”

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Emma said that it was as a result of this Instagram post that the manager of PRYZM was then forced to inform staff of the closure of the club via a work group chat.

Staff were then asked to attend an online meeting on Wednesday which was pushed back more than a day until Thursday evening where they were told they had been made redundant.

Emma claims that whilst business had been on a downwards trend, the closure of the club completely blindsided her. She said, “Trade has been rocky since covid however we had a successful Freshers’ and Christmas period.

“As of two weeks ago we were told ‘business as usual’ and that our jobs were safe.”

During the online meeting for the over 300 staff members from the 17 club locations owned by Rekom over the country which have closed, staff discovered they would only receive a redundancy package if they had worked at the company for over two years.

They were also informed they would have to claim for wages which they were owed and that it could take a month to receive them.

Emma spoke of how angry this has left feeling, as she believes “it seemed as though Rekom knew ages ago [about the closures] and strung us along for three weeks saying all is fine.”

It was reported earlier this week that the club was being stripped which fuelled mounting rumours surrounding the club’s closure.

The company, which owns more than three dozen nightclubs and 12 late-night, said it has been an “extremely difficult” year due to the cost of living crisis and an increase in energy prices.

PRYZM opened in Nottingham in 2016 following an £800,000 investment and was renamed from Oceana. It is currently Nottingham’s biggest night club with a capacity of 2,500, beating in size other venues popular with students such as Rock City and Ocean.

A spokesperson on behalf of PRYZM Nottingham said: “The decision to close PRYZM Nottingham has not been an easy one and we did everything we could to try and save the venue. Unfortunately, we couldn’t reach an agreement with the landlord and had no option but to return the lease.

“This outcome follows an extremely difficult period for PRYZM Nottingham and the late night sector in general, thanks to the combination of the cost-of-living crisis hitting students particularly hard, as well as the rising National Living Wage alongside increased business rates and costs of operating.

“There is never an easy way to close a business and we have been as open and honest as we can be at all times,  but we have also been bound by a legal process to which we have adhered.

“We are doing everything we can to support those impacted by this decision and are working round the clock to ensure that everyone is paid as quickly as possible.”

*Name has been changed in order to protect the identity of the source 

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