The Stage

Government receives more than 60 complaints since launch of up-front fee legislation

Published Thursday 11 December 2008 at 10:55 by Matthew Hemley

A total of 62 official complaints have been made to the government about agencies charging up-front fees since new legislation was brought in to prevent the practice earlier this year.

The legislation is designed to stop casting companies which charge a fee for including performers’ details in a publication or website from taking any money up front, and allows performers a seven-day cooling off period, when they have the right to change their minds.

New data released by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has revealed that Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate - the division of BERR that investigates complaints about agency conduct - received 62 complaints regarding companies charging fees during the cooling off period, since it was introduced on April 6. Of these, 12 were found to be substantiated, resulting in warning letters being sent to the agencies concerned. Ten were found to be unsubstantiated and a further two were identified as not being within the scope of the legislation. The remainder are being investigated.

Regarding the complaints that were upheld, BERR said three people who paid out money had received refunds following direct intervention from EAS inspectors. The EAS will now monitor companies that have had warnings and can prosecute any that repeat offend.

Some industry figures, including Conservative shadow minister for business Mark Prisk, have questioned the effectiveness of the new legislation. Equity has also raised doubts about it, with the union’s council this week passing a motion calling on Equity to present evidence to the Business and Enterprise Committee - which scrutinises the actions of BERR - that vulnerable workers are still not being protected by the legislation.

The motion asks Equity to raise a number of issues with the committee, including the perceived failure of EAS “to deal effectively with the problem of up-front fees” and the need for the EAS to be made a statutory body that can impose fines. It also says agency licensing should be reintroduced, which would see anyone looking to set themselves up as a theatrical agency required to have a licence.

Equity spokesman Martin Brown said: “We think bringing that back is the only way to bring regulation to this area. All other attempts to bring regulation to this area have failed - and most of these fly by night operations which give a bad name to the overwhelming majority of good agents have come up since the lifting of licensing some years ago.”

However, a department for business spokesman said the EAS had been “carefully monitoring” the effectiveness of the new arrangements since the cooling-off period was introduced.

“The government remains committed to ensuring that up-front fees cannot be used by rogue employment agencies to exploit potentially vulnerable workers and will take further steps if we conclude that they are necessary,” he said.