BOX office staff have been axed from a city centre cinema in a move staff say will lead to reduced hours and hit workers with disabilities hardest.

Cineworld on Renfrew Street cinema has removed ticket staff from the front desks from Monday to Thursday during the day as part of a plan to "reorganise" the workforce.

Tickets must now be purchased on individual floors of the 18-screen cinema where food and drinks are sold. It is not known if it is a company-wide change.

Many Cineworld staff are on zero-hour contracts - around 80% of the company-wide workforce - allowing the business to send workers home if business is quiet or change shift patterns each week.

READ MORE: Cineworld cuts late-night staff travel allowance as staff claim it leaves them vulnerable 

A Cineworld spokesman said it had no plans to cut staff and the change aims to "make the customer journey easier."

One employee said: “They are closing the box office from Monday to Thursday during the day which will have a serious impact on staff hours.

“There will be less staff needed but also that’s where staff member who have disabilities will generally work so they are being moved to hard bar stools to rip tickets which goes against the company ethos about making reasonable adjustments.

“The box office is also the first point of contact for customers coming in. We get a lot of older customers. We tend to spend a lot of time with those customers during the day and it’s not very

“A few have told us they aren’t happy about it.

“As usual when they are making cuts they look to the staff who are on the ground.”

In 2018 the company, which is the second largest cinema group in the world, reduced the late-night travel allowances for staff from £8 to £2.

READ MORE: Glasgow hospitality staff fears over 4am closing plan  

More than half of the 160-strong workforce signed an open letter to Cineworld CEO Moshe J. Greidinger, criticising the decision and detailing sexual assaults, violence and intimidation experienced by staff members whilst walking home in the early hours.

Last year, the company, which also runs cinemas at Parkhead Forge and Silverburn, blamed a drop in box office admission and profits in the first half of the year on a “disappointing” run of sequels.

The world’s second-largest cinema group by number of screens reported that admissions fell 15 per cent to 136m in the six months to June 30, although revenues were slightly better than expected for the second half of the year.

A Cinworld spokesman said: "We continue to invest in enhancing the cinematic experience and have recently been trialling new ways to make the customer journey easier and quicker during quiet periods, which has involved tweaks to the organisation and deployment of staff in our Renfrew Street cinema.

"We have absolutely no plans to cut back on staffing. So far, the feedback we have received from customers and our staff has been overwhelmingly positive