The Stage

TMA and Equity on brink of landmark £400 sub-rep deal

Published Thursday 21 October 2010 at 16:09 by Alistair Smith

Equity and the Theatrical Management Association are on the verge of agreeing a deal that will see actors and assistant stage managers working in the subsidised repertory sector paid a minimum of £400 a week.

The deal, which has been approved by the ruling councils of both Equity and the TMA and is currently under consultation with TMA theatres, will mark the culmination of nearly two years of extremely difficult negotiations between the union and trade association, which at times had threatened to spill over into industrial action.

Equity had been mandated by its members in 2007 to seek a ‘universal basic wage’ of £400 per week in all sectors, as well as a return to parity of minimum pay between actors and assistant stage managers. This has already been achieved for both the commercial and independent sectors.

Now, the sub-rep deal achieves both of these aims, but over a considerably longer period of time than Equity - and its members - had wanted.

The agreement will see performers and assistant stage managers - currently on minimums of £352 and £324 respectively - achieve a £400 a week minimum by 2016. Actors working in grade 1 and 2 theatres - generally larger subsidised venues - will reach £400 by 2012/13. These minimums, though, will then be held at this level until 2016, by which time ASMs and those working in grade 3 theatres will have reached the same level of minimum pay. Subsistence and touring allowances will go up in line with the Retail Price Index each year to 2016, capped at 5%.

Assistant stage managers will be regarded by many to be the biggest winners in the deal, with their minimum increasing from its current level of £324 to £400 by 2016.

The agreement also sets out changes to the Middle Range Salary Level - in some ways a better indication of pay across the sector as it effectively represents the average salary that theatres must pay actors and stage management. This will increase by 17% over the six-year period for grade 1 theatres, 14.5% for grade 2 and 13% for grade 3.

As well as the security of a long-term deal, which is not tied to any fluctuation in interest rates, managers have also gained a change to Sunday pay, meaning that actors and stage management will be given a £50 flat fee on top of their negotiated rate for each Sunday performance worked, rising to £56.50 by 2016.

Equity said that a Sunday agreement in sub-rep was not new, but the deal now meant that “people working under the minimum will get significantly more for working on Sunday, but people working well above the minimum may well lose out”. Previously, Sunday performances had been paid as an eighth extra on top of a performer’s weekly pay. For a performer earning the current weekly minimum of £352, this would have been £44. For a performer earning well above the minimum, it would have been considerably more.

The union described the agreement as a “tough deal for tough times”. Assistant general secretary Stephen Spence added: “There is nothing more to achieve through negotiation. Theatres have yet to ratify the agreement between Equity and the TMA, but if Equity waits to do the deal until after the government announces its spending cuts on October 20, it may no longer be on offer. It’s now or never.”

TMA chief executive Richard Pulford told The Stage that the deal, if agreed, would mark a “landmark” for the subsidised repertory sector. He added: “I think both the union and our members have been very mature and reasonable about this in very difficult circumstances.”