The Premier League has come under fire for cancelling freelance shifts and not paying cash-strapped workers.
Premier League Productions, the top flight’s television arm, has contacted camera operators, production crews and other services to tell them that certain dates they already had in their diaries have been cancelled.
Sportsmail has seen a number of emails sent by the organisation to would-be workers telling them that their services are no longer needed on certain dates with the competition on lockdown.
However, some of the freelancers, facing an incredibly bleak few months, believe that they are being unfairly punished by an organisation that — at the last count — had more than £1.5billion in the bank.
One of those affected, who did not wish to be named, explained: ‘This is a really worrying time for all of us. We had banked on the cash from the PLP shifts and, to be honest, even though the filming events were cancelled we thought that we would get paid anyway.
‘We think the Premier League has already received the money for the content, so why are they not paying us? If they are trying to save a few quid at our expense it stinks.’
The Premier League operates PLP along with global sports and talent management giants IMG. PLP produces and distributes all of the Premier League’s international programming, including the broadcast of every match. Under normal circumstances, PLP also produces seven magazine shows each week and the flagship Matchday Live programme, which provides wraparound coverage of all matches.
An IMG spokesman said: ‘In light of the temporary halting of live studio programming, PLP has reduced some of its freelance staff. Once we know what is happening with the Premier League we will review our freelance requirements.’
Like many other industries, these are worrying times for freelancers. On Tuesday, the broadcast union urged the government to help, with those who work in sport severely affected by the lack of live events to film and produce.
Theman21
2
The leagues and all their bosses and managers only care about money, EPL is nearly losing 1 BILLION while La Liga is losing around 750M the other league are losing a similar amount, if it was up to them they would make players play whether coronavirus or not. Thankfully there are health departments which are forcing them to stop.
Yorokiri
0
not fair at all