The Picturehouse cinema chain has been accused by its former employees of “irresponsible” treatment after staff were made redundant with immediate effect following the widespread shutdown of cinemas in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

EmailS sent by managers to staff at the Cameo cinema in Edinburgh, part of the Picturehouse chain, says that “we need to inform you that as part of our measures to save the business given the serious difficulties it is currently facing” the recipient will be laid off on 19 March, with no payment other than their contracted “notice pay”.

The email adds: “When we are able to reopen, we sincerely hope you wish to return to us.”

Helen McClory, a former customer service assistant at the Cameo, told the Guardian: “It’s utterly irresponsible to make so many of us redundant. Other companies are finding the money and goodwill to pay their staff sick pay, while we are let go with the idea that maybe we’ll be rehired. As if we’d want to work for companies that treat their workers as something to wring out, so they can use us up all over again.”

Picturehouse, which is owned by Cineworld the UK’s largest chain by market share, operates 26 cinemas across the UK, including sites in London, Oxford and Liverpool. They said in a statement: “Like other businesses in the retail and leisure industry we are facing an incredibly challenging time as a consequence of the global coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic … We value our employees and want to do everything we viably can to support them in these difficult and uncertain times. Our aim has been to preserve jobs and continue to pay as many staff as possible while they are not working.”

Picturehouse’s plans appear to be in line with its parent company’s; Cineworld told Deadline it was “facing an incredibly challenging time” while not confirming any layoffs. A spokesperson for Cineworld also told the Telegraph: “We are not firing all staff.”

Philippa Childs, head of the entertainment workers’ union, Bectu, said: “This is devastating news for people … who were already in a precarious situation as many were zero-hours contracts workers. To let people go, at a time like this, when they have no other possibility of getting a job will only further add to their anguish in the current climate … This is not the time to take advantage of the situation and prepare for turning a profit once thing starts to improve.”

Employees of Curzon, a smaller chain of 12 venues, were sent a message from their chief executive, Philip Knatchbull, promising to avoid redundancies if at all possible. He said that all full-time employees would be paid 50% of their current salaries, while hourly-paid workers would take holiday and then half-pay for two weeks. He said the arrangement would be reviewed in a fortnight.

In the US, boutique chain Alamo Drafthouse has set up a $2m (£1.2m) fund to help employees, offered two weeks supplementary pay and continued medical cover until the end of April.

Picturehouse staff at their venues in London went on strike in 2016 over pay and conditions, and staged high-profile protests at film festival events in 2017 and 2018. Bectu recently called off its long-running boycott of Picturehouse’s Ritzy cinema in Brixton, London after an employment tribunal revoked an order for two former staff members to be reinstated.