The Stage

Northern Ireland’s oldest actors’ agency handed government ban

Published Tuesday 30 June 2009 at 13:45 by Michael Quinn

The owner of Northern Ireland’s oldest actors’ agency has been banned from trading by an industrial tribunal in a case brought against him by the Department of Employment and Learning.

The decision against Patrick Duncan of the Belfast-based Dealers Agency - the first of its kind against any employment agency in Northern Ireland - was described by the tribunal itself as “a draconian measure effectively putting [Duncan] out of business”.

In the third case taken against Duncan by the DEL since 2005, the tribunal found him guilty of a “persistent” breach of employment regulations in failing to keep adequate records or a dedicated banking account for clients and to supply clients with written terms and conditions. It also said that he had been “evasive and obstructive in his dealings with DEL” when it imposed a two-year ban.

Duncan, who founded the agency in 1997 and currently has a client list of 430, says he intends to appeal on grounds that the tribunal ignored evidence supplied by him, and that the immediate effect of the ruling will be to “harm actors”.

Accusing the DEL of “using me as a stick to beat the whole industry with”, Duncan told The Stage: “They’re putting theatrical agencies into a straitjacket and then standing back, pointing and laughing at the way we don’t fit it”.

In 2003, the agency’s original office was destroyed by fire, shortly after which Duncan was declared bankrupt. The case arose in March 2006 when two actors complained that payments had not been forwarded to them. The original finding against Duncan in 2005 was later overturned for being “legally erroneous”, with the latest tribunal concluding that “there is no allegation, or evidence of, dishonesty”. Payments to all of the agent’s clients are now fully up to date.

Claiming the three actions against him amounted to “a vendetta”, Duncan said that “at the point where we were put out of business, we were the first and only compliant agency [in Northern Ireland]”. He likened the action of the DEL to “a very blunt surgical instrument killing the patient”.

Duncan is to meet with Reg Empey, minister for employment and learning, to challenge his department’s actions later this week.