Equity members were outside Spotlight’s conference in central London on Tuesday morning, 21 October, demanding answers on its purpose, its fees and its owners.
“It’s a professional necessity to be on Spotlight – agents won’t take you if you’re not on there so you can’t get work without a profile, and the cost of that just keeps going up”, explained one Equity member, saying this was a huge issue for her.
Yet, according to Spotlight, the purpose of its service is not to find work. It defended this position in the High Court in July to secure the right to charge performers any fee it likes. Equity thinks this flies in the face of the common-sense understanding of Spotlight. Actors use Spotlight to find work; casting directors use it to find performers.
This view was reflected by dozens of attendees to Spotlight’s one-day conference when Equity members spoke with them outside the RADA conference venue. From actors to agents, they all said that it was essential to be on Spotlight if you wanted to get work. As members handed out leaflets with five questions for Spotlight to answer, many conference attendees said they agreed with the union’s position and wished something could be done. “It’s just greed” said one, “and actors really struggle so it seems mean.”
The leaflet handed out by the friendly Equity bunch explained that as Spotlight charges performers over £200 a year simply to have the chance to find work, the company needs to answer the following questions:
1. If Spotlight’s purpose is not to find work, why does it describe itself as the “home of casting”?
2. If Spotlight believes its fees reflect a reasonable estimate of its costs, will it demonstrate this transparently to its subscribers?
3. What annual profit does Spotlight make from its casting directory, and where can subscribers find that information?
4. Who are Spotlight’s private-equity owners?
5. Does Spotlight believe that all its subscribers have equal access to work through its platform, despite the prevalence of recruitment by closed list?
Equity president Lynda Rooke thanked the members who turned up for the leafleting session – for some it was their first action with the union. “It’s been a really productive and friendly session,” said Lynda. “We’ll continue to take this fight for fair access to work and we’d like to hear suggestions from members about other actions to take this forward.”
Equity is seeking permission to appeal last month’s High Court judgement which found that Spotlight “does not provide services for the purposes of finding persons employment with employers, or of supplying employers with persons for employment by them.” Equity disagrees. We maintain that the common-sense understanding of Spotlight’s purpose is to find work: in other words, to quote the Employment Agencies Act 1973: “providing services (whether by the provision of information or otherwise) for the purpose of finding employment”. Our argument is that Spotlight should therefore abide by the regulations restricting the level of fee it can charge.
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