The Stage

TV tribute act show The One and Only accused of breaking employment law

Published Tuesday 4 March 2008 at 12:40 by Matthew Hemley

Endemol has been accused of flouting employment law, with Equity claiming contestants on its BBC1 show The One and Only should have been paid.

According to the union, the 24 contestants who made it onto the production company’s tribute act series were obliged to sign contracts that waived their protection under working time laws and forced them to assign all rights in their performances to Endemol.

The union said its lawyers felt these contracts were “clear signs” that the contestants were working as employees of Endemol and were therefore entitled to a minimum wage.

Equity assistant general secretary Andy Prodger claimed the production company had ignored numerous approaches from the union about paying contestants, despite being “one of the biggest and most profitable independent TV producers”.

He said: “When the BBC produced their own talent shows, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? and Any Dream Will Do, they acted honourably and engaged all the finalists on proper industry-standard contracts with pay rates well above national minimum wage. They have agreed to do so again in the forthcoming show I’d Do Anything. Unfortunately, Endemol is apparently happy to exploit the dreams of aspiring performers without offering them a penny.”

However, Prodger said he was disappointed the BBC had allowed this “exploitation” and added: “I doubt if the viewers who spent good money on telephone voting knew that none of the money would go to the performers who entertained them so well.”

The union’s claims give weight to the arguments of professional tribute acts who criticised The One and Only for labelling the show a competition to find the UK’s “best” tribute acts. They argued the country’s best acts would not be able to take part in such a show because they would be too busy working.

Equity said it had now raised the matter of pay with the National Minimum Wage section of HM Revenue and Customs, but added that the union itself could not take a case against Endemol.

It is now urging any contestant involved in The One and Only looking to make a complaint to get in touch.

A spokesman for Endemol denied Equity had made any approaches to the company directly about paying the acts featured in The One and Only, adding: “From the very beginning we have taken independent advice about this in order to ensure we are acting fairly, responsibly and in line with common practice. We’re surprised that Equity has issued a press release rather than contacting us directly. We’re very happy to talk to them but would obviously prefer not to do so via press releases.”