Equity

Use of amateurs sparks debate
attempts to reprimand the Council for inaction fail

Conference representatives discussed at length the thorny issue of the use of amateurs in theatrical productions. At last year’s conference a motion calling for an end to the practice was carried overwhelmingly, but in the intervening 12 months, legal advice obtained by the union warned that any action in support of that aim could put the union at serious risk of a legal challenge.

At this year’s Conference, the Equity Council came in for some serious criticism for not implementing last year’s policy, in spite of the legal advice. Council member Michael Earl objected to a decision by the Council to keep the legal advice confidential. “For 12 months nothing has been done, there has been no referendum on the motion decided at last year’s conference and no explanation as to why,” he said. Roy Radford of the Walk-on and Supporting Artists’ Committee called the Council’s actions “a betrayal”.

But Council member Ian Barritt cautioned that when Council received legal advice that was potentially damaging to the union it made sense to keep it confidential. “It is not because we do not want the members to see it. It is because we do not want the employers to see it,” he said. Frances Rifkin of the Small Scale Theatre Committee told representatives that in her area of theatre many jobs depend on mobilising amateurs.

The motion from the Walk-on and Supporting Artists’ Committee demanding that the Council implement the motion from last year’s conference and reprimanding it for not calling a referendum was defeated.

In his first address to an Equity Conference, Stephen Spence, Equity’s newly appointed Assistant General Secretary Theatre and Variety, said that minimum rates of pay in all four of the main theatre agreements were abysmal. “Many workers would not get out of bed for these rates of pay. But our members get out of bed day after day because they are dedicated and believe passionately in what they do.” He reminded the conference that some years ago it had agreed that the minimum rate in all theatre agreements should be at least £350 a week, but he warned that it was not an easy thing to achieve. “The Stage calculated that £350 represented a 23 per cent increase, but in the following week’s edition there was not a single letter of outrage. That is because what 23 per cent builds on is a minimum rehearsal pay in commercial theatre of £285 a week. That would only be £18,200 a year if you earned it for 52 weeks. But nobody does!” He said that the whole union needed to campaign for a £350 a week minimum.

Other theatre motions carried by the conference were:
• Equity will campaign for all publicly funded regional theatres to include casting breakdowns on their web sites.
• The union will develop guidance for theatre companies on accessing public funding.
• Equity will investigate the health and safety implications of the growing use of intense side lighting in opera productions and develop guidelines.
• The union will develop ideas for a Great British Shakespeare celebration to coincide with the 2012 Olympics.