The Stage

Bectu objects to book fees

Published Tuesday 14 September 2004 at 12:35 by Joanna Taylor

Trade and Industry secretary Patricia Hewitt is facing renewed pressure from the entertainment sector to ban book fees charged to performers for inclusion in directories.

Bectu, which represents hundreds of background artists, complains that new industry regulations implemented to help their members by limiting the use of advance fees by agents have left performers worse off.

The revised Conduct for Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations, which came into force in December last year, outlawed the practice of charging ‘up-front’ or joining fees to entertainers, models and extras before finding them work.

The government’s intention was to combat rogue companies which took money off hopeful clients but that had no intention of offering work. However, rumours that Whitehall also intended to ban advance charges for inclusion in performer directories prompted many agents to increase their commission charges to offset loss of income.

Despite a later decision by the Department of Trade and Industry not to impose a ban on advance book fees, Bectu official Spencer McDonald said the increased commission charges have remained in force.

Writing in the Bectu journal Stage, Screen and Radio he said: “Members are now being charged [book fees] but are still being charged the higher commission, so they are now worse off than they were before the new regulations came in.

“In our opinion casting books have proved to be of little advantage to the background artists as they only really market the agent. It is only in the last five or six years that casting books have become commonplace. Book fees are unnecessary, as proved by the reputable agents who don’t charge them.”

A number of conditions were included in the regulations to ensure actors could not be exploited by book fees. These include the stipulation that the sum charged by the agent must be no more than the estimated cost of producing and circulating the resulting publication.

Equity does not support Bectu’s position. A union spokesman commented: “We are not opposed to book fees and never have been. We lobbied hard to ensure that the legislation did two things.

“These were, firstly, to make it impossible for agents to make being included in a book a condition of registering and secondly, the sum should be proportionate to the cost of publication and circulation. We were successful. Directories can be useful in finding members work so why should we oppose them?”

• Walk-on campaigner Clive Hurst, who has been at the forefront of the fight against up-front fees is planning to demonstrate outside the Department for Trade and Industry and the Houses of Parliament on November 5, in a bid to get all advance fees, including book fees, banned.