Performers and stage management working in London’s West End theatres have today addressed Equity’s annual conference, calling for “a real-terms pay rise”.
This group of members are currently voting in an indicative ballot to show their willingness to take strike action on Saturdays and implement an overtime ban. This comes as their trade union Equity is negotiating a multi-year agreement with West End producers’ association SOLT (Society of London Theatre), which sets minimum pay, terms and conditions for the workforce.
The ballot closes in one week, on Monday 18 May.
No one working in the West End should have to find a second or third job just to make ends meet.
Equity member of West End Working Party
Members at Equity’s conference, which is being held this year a Durham Miners’ Hall, held a banner and posters, and chanted ‘Pay Up!’ – the name of Equity’s West End campaign.
In his speech to conference on Saturday, Equity’s General Secretary Paul W Fleming said that there was “a real prospect of industrial action on the West End costing the bosses hundreds of thousands of pounds a day.”
Equity has not conducted an indicative ballot of this type on the West End since Margaret Thatcher’s restrictions of trades union freedom in the 1980s.
Around 1,000 performers and stage management currently working across the West End are covered by the collective agreement, and the overwhelming majority are Equity members.
Addressing Equity conference, performers and stage management on Equity’s West End negotiating committee, said:
“Three years ago, our Stand Up for 17% campaign won increases of 22.19% to minimum rates in the West End. But this only kept up with inflation. Three years later, the bosses have record-breaking West End revenue in 2025 of £1.08 billion, and we're back for a real-terms pay rise. To paraphrase Miriam Margolyes, the sauce bottle keeps getting bigger, and it's high time our members got their fair share.
“No one working in the West End should have to find a second or third job just to make ends meet. No one working in the West End should have to worry about getting enough time off. No one working in the West End should be forced to leave the industry they love. And that's why we need your help, to tell the bosses that – quite simply – it's time to Pay Up!
“We're currently balloting everyone who's worked on a West End show in the last three years for their support in our negotiations. We're also conducting an indicative ballot on industrial action in the West End… Together, we will take the fight to the bosses, and together we will make them Pay Up!”
More about the negotiations
Negotiations for a new agreement covering performers and stage management have been ongoing since December of 2025, and have been constructive to date. Equity is pleased with tentative proposals around improvements to maternity and paternity pay, wigs, hair, and makeup, and other terms.
However, they do not form part of a package which meets the union’s reasonable expectations on pay, holiday, rehearsal working time, injury, and stage management differentials. SOLT (Society of London Theatre) have also declined to offer payments for newly defined roles, like fight and social media captains, or resolve issues around stage management covering other roles.
Around 1,000 performers and stage management currently working across the West End are covered by the collective agreement, and the overwhelming majority are Equity members. Members will take part in an online ballot to indicate their willingness to take strike action on Saturdays and implement an overtime ban.
Additionally, members both currently working on a show and those who have worked on the West End in the past three years are being asked whether they back the union’s negotiating position, with almost 3,000 members in total being balloted for their view.
Equity is urging members to vote yes on both questions to help move talks forwards.
