The Stage

ACE suspends adverts for unpaid jobs

Published Wednesday 11 August 2010 at 12:17 by Natalie Woolman

Adverts for voluntary jobs and unpaid work experience have been temporarily suspended on Arts Council England’s jobs website because it was feared that many contravened minimum wage regulations.

ACE is redeveloping the Arts Jobs site so that users can only offer “genuine volunteering opportunities” that are within the minimum wage regulations.

Users posting job adverts will have to answer mandatory questions and fill additional entry fields once the changes have been made to the website.

ACE expects the improved unpaid opportunities function to go live by September.

A spokesperson for ACE said: “We are committed to ensuring that artists and those who work in the creative industries are properly remunerated for any work that they do.

“We recognise that there is great value in people having access to proper work experience, where it is offered and arranged properly and is a mutually beneficial arrangement, but that this should never be used as a way of attempting to circumvent the minimum wage regulations.”

Arts Jobs will continue to advertise paid jobs while the unpaid opportunities section of the website is changed. Earlier this year, the Low Pay Commission called on the government to produce “sector specific guidance” on minimum wages in the entertainment industry.

In the report, the LPC said it had heard from actors complaining that roles in TV and films are advertised as unpaid “when they were clearly work”.

The LPC’s recommendation has been accepted by the government, which is set to publish guidance on the issue, although a time frame has yet to be confirmed.