The remaining 23 full-time employees (or fewer) -- supposedly more than 20 staffers have already taken the "very generous voluntary redundancy packages" -- will now fill new managerial positions, "in name or fact," according to a source, meaning that "the actual artists" will all be contractors in the future. The long term play here is to avoid paying wages during downtime (cutting contractors is a lot easier than laying off full-timers) and to wriggle out of pesky, strict European employment legislation. A contract worker needs two years of employment in a position to have the same rights as a full-time employee in the region.
Now, we have to wonder: After all the artists are converted, who's next?
