The Stage

We must unite against the up-front cowboys

Published Tuesday 11 April 2006 at 11:00

It is more than two years since Whitehall tightened up the rules regarding the charging of up-front fees by employment agencies. We should not be surprised to find that anecdotal evidence suggests that abuses of the system are most marked within the entertainment industry.

The reason of course is obvious: ours is a sector for which supply always outstrips demand. No ambitious youngster will lose sleep over their inability to sign on to the books of a conventional labour agency. Yet many will be prepared to sacrifice a great deal more in order to “live their dreams”. The rewards are higher, the attractions greater and the opportunities for exploitation more pronounced.

As the Department for Trade and Industry and the likes of this newspaper are painfully aware, a certain amount must be taken on trust when dealing with so-called agents with no previous form for wrongdoing. By the time the first complaints are made, the perpetrators may have scores of victims to their credit.

The reform of the regulations in 2003/4 cannot be faulted for lack of precision. Up-front fees remain legal in the case of directories such as Spotlight which do not charge for further work services or when the charge represents a ‘reasonable’ estimate of publication costs. Patently, this qualification provides no protection for the scam merchants and rogue agents.

Just as the law is clear on the issue, so too should be any right-thinking person involved in entertainment. The DTI, to its credit, has not equivocated but thrown its weight behind these latest efforts. So must our entire industry.

Edinburgh’s fee fallacy

It was not so long ago that Paul Gudgin was warning that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe could not afford to rest too heavily upon its laurels. Coming in an era of year on year success at the box office, these remarks displayed a commonsense appreciation of the challenges faced.

The only people who appear not to have been listening are the local city councillors, now engaged in hiking up the price for performance licences. Spokesman Jack O’Donnell maintains that the existing fees are “not financially prudent”. Well, it makes a great deal more sense than pricing Edinburgh’s biggest earner out of existence.