Arsenal to pay casual workers for cancelled fixtures

By Can Erozden

ANKARA (AA) - English football club Arsenal on Wednesday announced it would continue payments to casual workers despite the suspension of Premier League fixtures.

In a statement, the London club said matchday workers will be compensated for fixtures that were to be held from the end of April to the end of May.

"For our matchday casual workers this means they will be paid for all four Premier League games that have been postponed and will be paid again should they work at these games once re-arranged," read the statement.

For regular employees, the club clarified that it is “not considering redundancies.”

“All our employees are receiving their full salaries and we plan to continue this. We are not currently intending to use the Government’s furlough scheme,” the statement added.

All professional football matches in England were called off in mid-March as part of nationwide efforts to stem the spread of COVID-19.

In early April, authorities announced that England's top football league “will not resume at the beginning of May” and “the 2019/20 season will only return when it is safe and appropriate.”

The U.K. is one of the worst-affected countries in the world, with nearly 100,000 COVID-19 cases and almost 13,000 deaths to date.