Children could get Equity membership

Published Wednesday 29 August 2007 at 14:35 by Lalayn Baluch

Exclusive: Child performers are being considered for Equity membership for the first time in almost 20 years.

The union is investigating opening its doors to children under 14, following a series of incidents in which the organisation has been powerless to intercede because the young performers were not Equity members. This included a recent high-profile complaint against West End production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Equity is looking into the legal viability of what would be a major policy change and will consider the type of membership that could be offered, how old performers would have to be to join, and the services that could be provided.

Martin Brown, Equity’s head of communications and membership support, told The Stage: “We think that child performers are at risk of not being treated as well as they might be in the entertainment industry. They have no one to represent them at the moment. Their agents find them work - the agents, of course, have a financial interest. They don’t have a disinterested representation that a trade union like Equity could give them.

“We believe we have a duty to look into the possibility of opening up Equity membership to children. That’s a long-term thing, it’s not going to happen overnight, but we are investigating both the legal complexities of it and the trade union issues around it. We’re hoping to bring proposals to the Equity council in the autumn.”

Children were eligible once for temporary membership, a measure introduced in 1969, when union cards were essential to work in the entertainment industry. However, this was dropped in 1988 after Margaret Thatcher’s employment legislation put an end to the ‘closed shop’ system.

Under current regulations, the trade organisation provides no representative structure or protection for its 29 youth members, aged 14 and 15, or its 3,700 student participants. It offers no form of membership whatsoever for performers under 14.

Last month, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group came under fire when parents complained their children were not getting paid for performing in the choir of stage show Joseph.

Equity urged the production company to pay children a minimum of £190 each week - half the adult minimum wage - but did not have the power to take the campaign further.

Tarquin Shaw-Young, managing director of Stagecoach Agency UK, believes that child membership would enable the trade union to intervene in disputes and assist in recovering payments, which agents cannot do.

He also said he would have to be sure of the benefits before backing the idea, but added that Equity would be welcomed “with open arms” if it supported Stagecoach in the campaign to overhaul child licensing legislation.

Meanwhile, Sylvia Young, principal of the Sylvia Young Theatre School, hoped that if the proposals became a reality, children would receive royalties they are not currently entitled to.

However, Young warned that there could be “hiccups” on the way, particularly over wages. She highlighted that members of Equity are unable to accept work that pays less than its set rate, and questioned how this would affect children who are paid less than adults.

Young added: “I don’t think it is necessary, but it has got its advantages - that they can have their share of the pot. Obviously it is clear that Equity would like to have more members, and perhaps go on to become adult members. But unless they [Equity] can offer something substantial, it will be interesting to know how they are going to encourage [children to join].

“Unless they are going to properly represent the children and take up contractual problems, I can’t see that it is an advantage.”