Equity is there for our members, to offer support, advice and representation when it’s needed. We take collective action and support members if things go wrong at work: in grievances, disciplinaries or even Employment Tribunals.
Equity recently supported a member with a successful Employment Tribunal claim against Quantum Theatre, a company primarily working in outdoor theatre and theatre in education. The tribunal found that Quantum Theatre had failed to pay the claimant a National Minimum Wage compliant salary for two specific pay periods during the period of the engagement.
This was only possible because the company’s own records of working hours showed two periods in which our member’s pay fell below National Minimum Wage.
The tribunal outcome serves as a timely reminder to all members to keep an accurate record of their working hours.
Commenting Karrim Jalali, Equity’s Industrial Official for Live Performance said: “We’re pleased to have supported our member to assert their basic rights, and that the judgment is partly in line with what we had always asserted – the member had not received a salary within certain pay periods that met National Minimum Wage based on the hours they worked. However, we’re disappointed that the court did not an award as much as our member originally hoped.
“The case serves as good example of how important it is for members to keep as accurate a record of working hours as possible while on tours, including from the rehearsal period onwards.”
Theatre in education, open air touring and community/care home touring can have gruelling schedules and it’s common for members to work more hours in relevant pay periods than they are paid for. It’s vital that members record their hours every day including when they are driving, when they are traveling, when they have breaks and how long those breaks last.
If you are in doubt about whether travel time counts towards working time, then check with us for clarity.
The case serves as good example of how important it is for members to keep as accurate a record of working hours as possible while on tours, including from the rehearsal period onwards.
Karrim Jalali, Equity’s Industrial Official for Live Performance
In general, if you are required to be in temporary accommodation/digs whilst on tour (either because the employer set this out as a requirement or in order to realistically be able to do the job) then your working time will start when you leave the temporary accommodation/digs and the working time will end when you return, save for breaks in actual work. This means that travel time should be considered as working time even if you are not driving. Rehearsal bases are, however, usually treated as a company base and the same applies when working in a non-touring production in one theatre which would typically count as a company base, meaning that journeys to and from those locations would not count as working time.
Even when members are on tours partly or entirely from home, if they are required to drive a company vehicle for work purposes (such as taking troupe members and/or sets to locations and back) from their home to the first venue and from the last venue home, then driving time is always working time. For those not driving in such situations, it may be that the journey to the first venue and the journey home from the last venue would not count as working time for the purpose of National Minimum Wage Regulations.
You should expect to have a minimum 20-minute uninterrupted break for working more than 6 hours in any given day, and if you don’t get that break, you should always make sure to document it.
Some members can be owed huge amounts of money by the time a tour ends. Even if you are only owed a small amount, we are still here to support you with any denial of your statutory rights. However, if you don’t keep an accurate record of your working hours, it’s much harder to support you and you leave yourself vulnerable to exploitation.
Some producers in these sectors also fail to honour member’s typical rights for paid holiday/holiday pay in lieu and pension enrolment. You can contact us to review contracts for advice before, during or straight after an engagement by emailing pmpp@equity.org.uk.
See our information on your typical rights
