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)
30 days annual leave plus bank holidays and Christmas closure
Company Car (lease option or allowance provided, full driving licence required)
Defined Benefit Contributory Pension Scheme
Equity recognises Unite as the staff group union
East & South East, working from London Office
Salary on a scale starting at £50,362.65 inclusive of London Weighting
Midlands, working from Birmingham Office
North East, Yorkshire, & Humberside, working from Manchester Office
North West, working from Manchester Office
Scotland, working from Glasgow Office
Salary on a scale starting at £46,662.47
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.
The Role
Organisers work under the direction of the Deputy General Secretary, and in close collaboration with Equity's Regional and National Officials to deliver the union's recruitment, organising and campaigning strategies across the live performance and recorded media sectors. They are specifically responsible for organising in workplaces, increasing membership density, identifying industrial, campaigning and casework issues, developing deputies (workplace reps) and local activists, at all times working in line with the Union’s democratic structures, and operating within trade union law and the Union’s own Rules.
Organisers work closely with National and Regional Officials and the union's industrial departments to develop and action strategies to build Equity's influence, organisation and bargaining coverage. Supporting the campaigning activity of branches and networks and training local activists is also central to these roles, alongside increasing member engagement with the wider trade union movement. Undertaking administrative duties to assist the national/area official in addition to the effective management of the relevant office is also expected.
Organiser roles will be based in each of Equity's offices in Glasgow, Manchester, London and Birmingham. Extensive travel in your region is expected, and regular travel to other Equity offices - a full driving licence is required. Successful candidates will attend Equity's Organiser development programme which will run throughout 2024.
Strong candidates will have experience of mobilising others to take action or have a track record of success in campaigning or organising. To be successful in this role you will have excellent interpersonal and administrative skills, be highly organised, independent, adaptable and flexible. You will be a confident public speaker, be enthusiastic about engaging with workers, and will have an ability to inspire others to act collectively to win. You will have an understanding of developing and executing campaign plans, of working in a target driven environment and have experience of using a range of communication tools.
The role requires a commitment to the role and work of Trade Unions.
Applicants must be available to start on 1st February 2024
For further information about the role please contact Louise McMullan, Deputy General Secretary lmcmullan@equity.org.uk
Equity is committed to equal opportunities and welcomes applications from all who believe they fit the essential requirements for the job.
Job Description and Person Specification
Application Form
Equalities Monitoring Form
Please send completed applications and equality monitoring forms to jobs@equity.org.uk clearly marked with your Name and the Job Title (please note that CVs sent in isolation will not be considered).
The closing date for applications is 9am on Monday 4th December 2023.
Interviews are scheduled to be held in December 2023 as follows:
East & South East
Monday 18th December in Central London
Midlands
Monday 18th December in Central London
Scotland
Tuesday 19th December in Glasgow
North West
Wednesday 20th December in Manchester
North East
Thursday 21st December in Manchester
Full time, permanent (35 hours per week)
30 days annual leave plus bank holidays and Christmas closure
Defined Benefit Contributory Pension Scheme
Based in Central London Head Office
Salary on a scale starting at £59,943.15 inclusive of London Weighting
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.
The Role
The Policy Officer (Employment Rights) is a new role within the Policy, Governance and Communications (PGC) Department and will work under the direction of the Assistant General Secretary (PGC), to advance the union's policy development, lobbying and campaigning activity. Their day to day responsibilities will include responding to consultations, conducting research, providing analysis and contributing to the union’s communications output with specific responsibility for leading and articulating our work on employment rights, equality and health and safety issues. This role will also further develop the union’s strategy for engaging with local authorities and will provide support for our lobbying and engagement activity in the UK Nations. They will also coordinate Equity’s involvement with the Federation of Entertainment Unions and relevant TUC working groups.
The role is based in Equity’s London office with occasional travel required to our National and Regional offices and to support and engage with our network of branches, committees and activists around the UK.
Strong candidates will be able to demonstrate success in using their analytical, writing and research skills to effect change. As well as being able to assess statistics, policy and legislative developments, they will also be able to communicate their ideas clearly and with a view to empowering members and activists to take action in support of the union’s campaigning and industrial objectives. Effective team working experience and strong interpersonal skills are also highly desirable as well as an ability to work at pace across a portfolio of projects.
The role requires a commitment to the role and work of Trade Unions and an understanding of the legislative environment experienced by atypical workers.
For further information about the role please contact Louise McMullan, Deputy General Secretary lmcmullan@equity.org.uk
Equity is committed to equal opportunities and welcomes applications from all who believe they fit the essential requirements for the job.
Job Description and Person Specification
Application Form
Equalities Monitoring Form
Please send completed applications and equality monitoring forms to jobs@equity.org.uk clearly marked with your Name and the Job Title (please note that CVs sent in isolation will not be considered).
The closing date for applications is 9am on Friday 1st December 2023.
Interviews are scheduled to be held on Monday 11th December 2023 in London.
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.
1. All action by staff or activists has a clear and conscious industrial outcome.
2. 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.
3. That staff and activists raise the industrial aspirations of the membership.
4. That every part of Equity’s structure, benefits, or services is focussed on an industrial outcome for our members. Industry events, benefits for members, and the union’s democratic structures, must be singularly focussed on where the union has power.
5. That the bosses are held to account. 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. We will not allow bosses to use others as the scapegoats for an industry where they control change.
6. That members at work or seeking work steer our industrial agenda from survey to strike.
7. Treat the primary place of union activity as Equity members’ workplaces. Recognising our industrial power comes from those at work, and seeking work, industrial staff will be present in members’ workplaces as their first port of call. Every workplace should be connected to an industrial structure. Staff members and senior activists should be facilitated to access members at work.
8. Aim 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.