Professionally made and paid

Equity’s latest survey of members’ pay showed almost half of respondents earned less than £5,000 a year from their professional work, and half had taken some unpaid work that year, while fewer than 15% earned over £20,000. A recent report by SOLT also found 80% of London fringe actors were paid nothing or below the national minimum wage. Equity members are asked to work for no pay on theatre productions, films, music videos, singing, dancing, modelling, managing the stage, making you laugh, and many other jobs. The range and scale of unpaid work in the sectors our members work in is staggering.

We believe this is an unfair and unsustainable trend which is damaging the industry. Our members are skilled professionals who deserve to be paid for their work, just like workers in every other industry. Diversity in the arts is under threat if the status quo is not challenged – our student members tell us they are expected to work for nothing for years after graduating, to get experience and exposure, giving an advantage to people with private financial means.

In many cases no pay work is a breach of the National Minimum Wage Act, which carries the risk of legal action or penalties from HMRC

The Professionally Made Professionally Paid campaign is designed to raise awareness of the problem, motivate our members and engage with employers to tackle unpaid and poorly paid work. The initial response following our January launch has been fantastic, with many employers contacting us to discuss improving their working practices, as well as hundreds of messages of support from across the industry. Actor David Morrissey said: “Equity’s Professionally Made Professionally Paid campaign to combat low pay and no pay could prove to be one of the most important in the union’s history.” While Julie Walters said: “It’s great that Equity is sending a clear message that professional work deserves professional pay” and called on “everyone in the industry to support the campaign”.

We realise that in many cases producers and other employers will be operating on very low budgets in a challenging environment and struggle to pay the rates required for our main agreements. That is why we have developed a range of accessible and realistic contracts for theatre and film, such as our Fringe Theatre Agreement, or the Non-Commercial Use Film Contract, which allow much lower rates as a stepping stone to developing into fully fledged employers.

Engaging with Professionally Made Professionally Paid also ensures employers are complying with the law. In many cases no pay work is a breach of the National Minimum Wage Act, which carries the risk of legal action or penalties from HMRC. We would much rather work with employers to avoid any expensive and unpleasant problems, but if our members are worried that their legal rights have been violated, we offer free legal advice, and if necessary full legal support all the way to court.

Our local branches are also involved, identifying employers up and down the country who they feel are priorities for engagement, as well as developing links with potential sponsors and benefactors who can help bring more money into the sector.

Equity members now have a clear course of action when they are facing unpaid work. There is a template letter for members who want to firmly but politely turn down unpaid work, which raises awareness of the campaign. And if members decide they do want to take the job, our new online monitoring form allows them to let us know in confidence.

There will be some who feel hopeless in the face of the scale of the problem. They should not. Even at this early stage we have signed up venues, producers and individual productions, with talks underway with many more. That means hundreds of Equity members are being paid who would not have been before, and most importantly it shows a new culture is developing. We know we face a major challenge, but we are confident that with the support of nearly 40,000 members, and all those in the industry and beyond who support our goals, we really can make a difference.

Emmanuel de Lange is Industrial Organiser of Low Pay No Pay at Equity.
www.equity.org.uk
@EquityLPNP