Union deal opens National Theatre for Sundays

Published Friday 7 March 2008 at 15:05 by Alistair Smith

Stage, lighting and sound technicians at the National Theatre have agreed a deal which will pave the way for regular Sunday openings at the South Bank venue for the first time in its history.

It has been a long-professed ambition of NT artistic director Nicholas Hytner to turn the venue into a seven-day operation, but negotiations between the theatre and technical union Bectu have been prolonged and difficult, with the National having to repeatedly postpone its plans for Sunday openings. However, today an agreement has been reached between the two parties, which includes arrangements for Sunday working.

NT executive director Nick Starr commented: “This new deal is well worth all the time and work both sides have put into it. It leaves behind an anachronistic arrangement whereby long-serving, skilled technicians had to rely on hourly payments. In future, they will have salaries - and security of earnings. Financially, the deal works by finding new efficiencies, allowing us to schedule staff more flexibly according to the production needs. And for the first time, it includes arrangements for Sunday performances.”

While discussions with Bectu staff in other NT departments about Sunday working are still ongoing, this agreement for workers in all “stages-related departments” is a crucial step in the venue’s move towards Sunday opening, which is planned for later this year.

Bectu supervisory official Willy Donaghy said: “I am delighted that we have successfully concluded the renegotiation of the agreement for members in the stage-related department. The new agreement will significantly increase basic pay rates and include arrangements for working Sunday performances which adequately compensate members and include quality time off work for current and future Bectu members.”

For more on this story, see next week’s print edition of The Stage.