Equity takes fight against Spotlight fees to Trades Union Congress

Equity will present its case to end Spotlight’s "tax on hope" to the Trades Union Congress this September.

The union will submit its policy to transfer the cost of finding work from jobbing actors onto the "bosses" looking to hire them at the TUC conference in Brighton.

Equity vice president Jackie Clune said challenging that long-standing protocol felt "radical", "important and brave".

It follows a unanimous vote in favour of a motion tabled by Equity council member Jassa Ahluwalia at the union’s annual conference, held in Birmingham from May 18 to 20.

Ahluwalia emphasised that Equity’s hope was "not to dismantle Spotlight" or similar sites, but to reconfigure its system, saying: "It’s unheard of for workers to be funding the primary recruitment tool on behalf of their employers – it’s absurd."

Members supported the actor and director’s proposal to press the TUC and the 5.5 million workers it represents to support a campaign to repeal the "profoundly unfair" legal exemption that allows performers to be charged for seeking work.

Equity has officially been campaigning for an end to casting fees for actors since late last year, but the move adds new fuel to the fire by escalating the cause to the union’s parent federation.

In a speech delivered at the conference in Birmingham on May 19, Ahluwalia celebrated the "win for Equity and industry allies" represented by Spotlight’s decision to cancel its proposed £294 ’premiere’ tier of subscription last year.

But he proposed a "radical and unifying" Equity policy shift, which would pressure casting directories such as Spotlight to assign costs to employers, as is the case in almost every other industry under UK law.

He said: "Equity believes all casting directories including Spotlight should be banned from charging work seekers... It is the bosses who should bear the costs."

Clune said the campaign was something members could "really resonate with", as she admitted she had once felt the union to be "slightly toothless" on its sector-changing ambitions.

But challenging Spotlight and its contemporaries’ practices won Clune’s approval, with the Smack the Pony contributor insisting: "It feels really radical, it feels member-led. This is a huge campaign. It’s really important and brave to be taking these US-owned companies to task. It shows we have guts and it shows that we’re brave."

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