Equity Jobs

Full time, permanent (35 hours per week) 
Based in Central London head office 
Salary on a scale starting at £42,094.97 (rising to £46,911.24 in July 2025) 
30 days annual leave plus bank holidays and Christmas office closure 
Defined Benefit and Contributory Pension Scheme 
Equity recognises Unite as the staff group union 
 
Equity

Equity is the UK trade union for professional performers and creative practitioners. Equity is respected as one of the most powerful entertainment unions in the world, and at the heart of the UK trade union movement. We are a growing union of around 50,000 members, proud of our strong organising and campaigning record. Our members are mostly freelance- with many working in greenfield and emerging areas in audio, videogames, dance and the light entertainment sectors. By contrast, most British TV, film and theatre are made on union agreements with minimum terms driving forward industry standards on everything from pay to dignity at work. The Union has a team of staff in offices across the UK who have a wealth of experience and expertise when it comes to advice and representation. They are able to deal with the issues raised by members working in all areas of the industry whether it be a major feature film, a theatre in education show, radio voice overs, a circus act or any other live or recorded work. 
 
Equity is committed to equal opportunities and welcomes applications from all who believe they fit the essential requirements for the job. 
 
The Role 

Equity seeks a proactive Policy & Public Affairs Assistant to join the policy team. This is a varied role at the heart of Equity's mission to shape government policy at all levels and advocate for the rights of our members. A typical day might include researching, analysing, or drafting a policy report, briefing or government consultation response, drafting and sending communications from the General Secretary to a senior government minister or group of MPs, helping to organise a meeting or event, supporting a member of Equity’s governing council with a query, or arranging travel for an Equity delegation.

You will work with policy, communications and industrial colleagues, Equity members, and external stakeholders. Successful applicants will be able to demonstrate strong research and analytical skills, ideally with a background in policy or public affairs particularly in the labour movement or creative industries. You will be detail oriented with a high level of accuracy in handling complex and quantitative data, and have familiarity with the UK political system, parliamentary procedures and the current landscape of employment rights industry challenges. You will be at ease switching between policy, public affairs and some administrative tasks.

How to Apply

Please send your completed application and equalities monitoring form to jobs@equity.org.uk clearly marked as [FULL NAME – POLICY + PUBLIC AFFAIRS ASSISTANT]. CVs sent in isolation will not be considered and only Word-compatible files or PDFs will be accepted.

Job Description and Person Specification 
Application Form 
Equalities Monitoring Form

The closing date for applications is 23:59 on Sunday 8 December 2024.

Interviews are scheduled to be held on Tuesday 17 December.

For further information about the role please contact Tom Peters (Head of Policy & Public Affairs) at tpeters@equity.org.uk.

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide feedback to all applicants. Therefore, if you haven’t heard back from us by the advertised interview date, your application has been unsuccessful. 

This is Equity’s proud statement of the world we want to build. It is this vision which drives our whole reason for being – whether it be organising in our industries, or participation in the worldwide trades union movement.

Equity’s members have been told, at best, that resilience to the industrial and political choices which underpin the arts and entertainment industries is admirable. At worst, they have been told to put up and shut up with the inevitable precarity of working in the industries where we organise. The products of their labour have been treated as luxuries or frivolities instead of serious industries underpinning social and economic progress.

The consequence is low pay, precarity, poor health and safety, harassment, bullying, and a mental health crisis. This is systemic and deep rooted – unlike most closed shop unions in the UK and elsewhere in the world (even in our own industries) we have inherited not a high basic pay, but a low one from the attitudes which prevailed from within the union and the industry. Where most unions achieved a 5 day week in the Edwardian era, the six day basic week remains a feature of most members’ working lives.

For a long time, under the closed shop and beyond, the union was viewed as, and sometimes acted like, a regulator rather than a negotiator. This has the legacy of a confused mixture of pride in Equity agreements, but an association of blame with the union for the persistence of bad terms – rather than the bosses who enforce them. Moreover, the union is often an ‘other’, not an organisation where the membership has ownership of its actions, but an organisation which does things to them.

As a union it is our role to collectively shift members’ consciousness and their organisation to a place where they are actively resisting, in every workplace, attacks on their terms and conditions.

Industrial
All action by staff or activists has a clear and conscious industrial outcome. Equity will always place blame on the bosses, and not attempt to behave like a regulator for poor behaviour within the industry. We will not expect government, funders, regulators, HMRC or other third parties to deliver outcomes, but sincerely believe that our industrial processes have the power to. Industry events, benefits for members, and the union’s democratic structures, must be singularly focused on where the union has power.

Accountable
That members and staff have a shared agenda. Equity’s members are the union, and should be those who drive our demands at work, and deliver the outcomes by their organising and campaigning. Members at work or seeking work steer our industrial agenda from survey to strike.

Collective
To resolve individual problems with collective answers. Every member will be treated with compassion and courtesy. Solutions to problems will always initially be industrial, through our advice or agreements. Legal support will be a secondary option, but used in an activist way to further the collective good. Most contractual, employment, equalities, and other workplace disputes will be dealt with by the union’s staff, following the strategies and using the leverage of Equity’s members.

Aspirational
That staff and activists raise the industrial aspirations of the membership.