Equity Jobs
Here you'll find all of the jobs available to join our team at Equity. We'll post new job vacancies here as and when they become available.
Equity Jobs
When there are jobs available, they will appear on the page below. Please do get in touch with any questions or queries you may have.
Current Vacancies
Full time, permanent (35 hours per week)
Based in our Manchester Office with extensive local travel
Salary on a scale starting at £61,029.61
Company Car Provided
30 days annual leave plus bank holidays and Christmas office closure
Defined Benefit and Contributory Pension Scheme
Equity recognises Unite as the staff group union
About Equity
Equity is the UK trade union for professional performers and creative practitioners. Equity is respected as one of the most powerful entertainment unions in the world, and at the heart of the UK trade union movement. We are a growing union of around 50,000 members, proud of our strong organising and campaigning record. Our members are mostly freelance- with many working in greenfield and emerging areas in audio, videogames, dance and the light entertainment sectors. By contrast, most British TV, film and theatre are made on union agreements with minimum terms driving forward industry standards on everything from pay to dignity at work. The Union has a team of staff in offices across the UK who have a wealth of experience and expertise when it comes to advice and representation. They are able to deal with the issues raised by members working in all areas of the industry whether it be a major feature film, a theatre in education show, radio voice overs, a circus act or any other live or recorded work.
Equity is committed to equal opportunities and welcomes applications from all who believe they fit the essential requirements for the job.
The Role
Area Officials work under the leadership of the Deputy General Secretary, and in liaison with other Officials. They are responsible for providing effective negotiations, organising and servicing to members in their designated part of the UK, including managing a caseload, and supporting the organising strategy in that nation or region. Area Officials are responsible for industrial areas across both the Live Performance and Recorded Media Departments, supporting and representing Equity Members working in the entertainment industries be it in theatre, variety, film, television, audio/radio, and other media.
The role will be based out of the Manchester office but extensive travel is required across the region so a full driving licence is essential, and a company car will be provided.
The role is perfect for someone who will seize the opportunity to expand Equity’s work into new areas, independently develop and implement projects, get out and about across the region visiting members in their workplaces and branches, and face new challenges every day; from helping a branch develop a local campaign and ensuring a singer gets paid for a gig one day, to saving a local theatre threatened with closure the next.
Ideally you will have experience of working in or with Trade Unions together with excellent negotiation, communication and advocacy skills, understand the organising agenda, be highly motivated, able to work on your own initiative as well as part of a team and have competent IT skills.
You will have an understanding of organising members and supporting members within the local political environment, working in line with the Union’s democratic structures, and at all times operating within trade union law and the Union’s own Rules.
How to Apply
Please send completed applications and equalities monitoring forms to jobs@equity.org.uk clearly marked as [FULL NAME – NORTH WEST OFFICIAL]. CVs sent in isolation will not be considered and only Word compatible files or PDFs will be accepted.
Job Description and Person Specification
Application Form
Equalities Monitoring Form
The closing date for applications is 23:59 on Tuesday 14 May 2024.
Interviews are scheduled to be held on Friday 24 May 2024 in Manchester.
For further information about the role please contact Louise McMullan (Deputy General Secretary) lmcmullan@equity.org.uk.
Unfortunately, we are unable to provide feedback to all applicants, therefore if you haven’t heard back from us by the advertised interview date your application has been unsuccessful.
Full time, permanent (35 hours per week)
Based in Central London head office
Salary on a scale starting at £73,609.92 (inclusive of London Weighting)
30 days annual leave plus bank holidays and Christmas office closure
Defined Benefit and Contributory Pension Scheme
Equity recognises Unite as the staff group union
Equity
Equity is the UK trade union for professional performers and creative practitioners. Equity is respected as one of the most powerful entertainment unions in the world, and at the heart of the UK trade union movement. We are a growing union of around 50,000 members, proud of our strong organising and campaigning record. Our members are mostly freelance- with many working in greenfield and emerging areas in audio, videogames, dance and the light entertainment sectors. By contrast, most British TV, film and theatre are made on union agreements with minimum terms driving forward industry standards on everything from pay to dignity at work. The Union has a team of staff in offices across the UK who have a wealth of experience and expertise when it comes to advice and representation. They are able to deal with the issues raised by members working in all areas of the industry whether it be a major feature film, a theatre in education show, radio voice overs, a circus act or any other live or recorded work.
Equity is committed to equal opportunities and welcomes applications from all who believe they fit the essential requirements for the job.
The Role
The Head of Communications will provide effective leadership and management of the Communications Section of the union as well as taking specific responsibility for driving forward proactive initiatives to raise the profile of the union and create leverage through press and other activity in pursuit of our industrial and campaigning priorities. They will be line managed by the Deputy General Secretary.
The Communications section is responsible for the delivery of a range of communications functions for the union including press and media relations, campaigns, print, merchandise, digital communications and social media.
The role will be based in Equity's headquarters in London. The ideal candidate will have an impressive track record in achieving wins through communications strategies and activities. Previous experience of working at a high level within or managing a communications function in a trade union is highly desirable.
To be successful in this role you will be motivated by winning for workers, have excellent interpersonal and team building skills, be adaptable and flexible. You will be enthusiastic about delivering high quality, impactful content across print and digital communications channels and be a source of expertise and new ideas. You will have an understanding of developing strategy and workplans and a commitment to coaching staff to achieve and exceed their objectives, at all times working in line with the Union’s democratic structures, and operating within trade union law and the Union’s own Rules.
The role requires a commitment to the role and work of trade unions, and Equity’s Vision, Mission and Values.
How to Apply
All candidates are highly encourgaed to speak to Louise McMullan, Deputy General Secretary lmcmullan@equity.org.uk about the role prior to applying.
Please send completed applications and equalities monitoring forms to nbaker@equity.org.uk clearly marked as [FULL NAME – HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS]. CVs sent in isolation will not be considered and only Word compatible files or PDFs will be accepted.
Job Description and Person Specification
Application Form
Equalities Monitoring Form
Our Vision, Mission, and Values
This is Equity’s proud statement of the world we want to build. It is this vision which drives our whole reason for being – whether it be organising in our industries, or participation in the worldwide trades union movement.
Equity’s members have been told, at best, that resilience to the industrial and political choices which underpin the arts and entertainment industries is admirable. At worst, they have been told to put up and shut up with the inevitable precarity of working in the industries where we organise. The products of their labour have been treated as luxuries or frivolities instead of serious industries underpinning social and economic progress.
The consequence is low pay, precarity, poor health and safety, harassment, bullying, and a mental health crisis. This is systemic and deep rooted – unlike most closed shop unions in the UK and elsewhere in the world (even in our own industries) we have inherited not a high basic pay, but a low one from the attitudes which prevailed from within the union and the industry. Where most unions achieved a 5 day week in the Edwardian era, the six day basic week remains a feature of most members’ working lives.
For a long time, under the closed shop and beyond, the union was viewed as, and sometimes acted like, a regulator rather than a negotiator. This has the legacy of a confused mixture of pride in Equity agreements, but an association of blame with the union for the persistence of bad terms – rather than the bosses who enforce them. Moreover, the union is often an ‘other’, not an organisation where the membership has ownership of its actions, but an organisation which does things to them.
As a union it is our role to collectively shift members’ consciousness and their organisation to a place where they are actively resisting, in every workplace, attacks on their terms and conditions.
Industrial
All action by staff or activists has a clear and conscious industrial outcome. Equity will always place blame on the bosses, and not attempt to behave like a regulator for poor behaviour within the industry. We will not expect government, funders, regulators, HMRC or other third parties to deliver outcomes, but sincerely believe that our industrial processes have the power to. Industry events, benefits for members, and the union’s democratic structures, must be singularly focused on where the union has power.
Accountable
That members and staff have a shared agenda. Equity’s members are the union, and should be those who drive our demands at work, and deliver the outcomes by their organising and campaigning. Members at work or seeking work steer our industrial agenda from survey to strike.
Collective
To resolve individual problems with collective answers. Every member will be treated with compassion and courtesy. Solutions to problems will always initially be industrial, through our advice or agreements. Legal support will be a secondary option, but used in an activist way to further the collective good. Most contractual, employment, equalities, and other workplace disputes will be dealt with by the union’s staff, following the strategies and using the leverage of Equity’s members.
Aspirational
That staff and activists raise the industrial aspirations of the membership.