The Literature Review...

Spence, S, 2011. Low pay/no pay week: Equity’s Stephen Spence (online) The Stage. 

Available at: <http://blogs.thestage.co.uk/newsblog/2011/07/low-pay-no-pay-equity/> 

(Accessed March 21 2014)

This article was written in 2011 by Stephen Spence, Equity’s Assistant General Secretary, for a special ‘low pay/no pay’ issue of The Stage magazine. The online article aims to inform the reader of the complicated issues surrounding ‘remuneration’ in the arts, and how Equity, the trade union for performers, is trying to bring greater ‘clarity’ to the situation. Due to his position in the union, Spence is indeed very biased towards the rights of performers, although his points are well rounded and have much evidence supporting them.

The main issue involved with ‘low to no pay’ work is complex. It involves the concept of what defines a ‘worker’? If you are defined as a ‘worker’ then you are entitled to the National Minimum Wage (NMW), however ‘non workers’ or ‘volunteers,’ are not entitled to the NMW:

“workers, voluntary workers and non-workers can look remarkably similar from a legal point of view. It’s the details of how the arrangement was made and of what a person is actually doing that determines their status, and whether the NMW should be paid.”

Spence underlines here that each situation is different, and the legislation covering the type of employment you find in the entertainment industry is vague, meaning that each case has to be looked at separately. He comments on the fact that HMRC has very little ‘sector specific’ guidance for employees in entertainment industry roles, and that The Low Pay Commission has advised the government of the need for more specific industry standards regarding this, to little avail.

Towards the end of the article, Spence discusses the idea that Equity is a trade union, not a regulating body for the entire industry. There are some areas of the industry that are more ‘unionised’ than others meaning Equity’s presence is felt more strongly. This is not the case for the commercial dance sector of the industry, as there are very few Equity contracts available:

“Until Equity can unionise an area, low-paid work is offered and many union members join the ranks of the working poor, trying to keep bread on the table and milk in the fridge on bargain-basement wages.”

This may explain why fewer commercial dancers are members of Equity, even though they support the values the union upholds. Low paid work is inevitable in an area of the industry that is yet to be ‘tackled’ and during the current recession, employers in our domain are less and less likely to become unionised when they can employ workers for ‘low to no pay’ and get away with it. This really poses the question: ‘how does this sit with civil rights or even human rights?’ and ‘how does that advance ethics in our industries?’ It appears to be ‘up to us’ as dancers to demonstrate the real need for ‘union’ and promote a higher ethical standard in our workplace.