Mike Dick supports 'Great Jobs' motion at TUC Congress

A proposition on 'Great Jobs' was passed at the TUC's Brighton Congress on Monday 11 September. BECTU Sector Executive Committee member Mike Dick spoke for the creative sectors in the debate. Here is the full text of his speech:

Chair, Congress. Good afternoon my name is Mike Dick, I’m a proud member of the BECTU Sector of Prospect. This is my first time at conference - and while I was sitting out here waiting, I figured out that I joined my first trade union when I was a teenager. So it’s only taken me 52 years to get here. Still as they say - better late then never!

Over the years I’ve watched with alarm and great anger as Britain has systematically followed the path of labour market deregulation - easy to hire, easy to fire - leading to a land of insecure jobs, low pay, and long hours. These are deeply ingrained problems which urgently need to be tackled.

We need legislation to end this insecurity at work. "Changing the world of work for good" is the key message of this conference. It gets to the heart of what the trade union movement is about and boy do we need to urgently change things now. The gig economy is wide open to abuse. Zero hours contracts, bogus self employment and no job security. The essential question for workers in the BECTU sector is their employment status.

We have over 40,000 members, working in the media, entertainment, and communications industries. Approximately 10,000 of our members identify themselves as "freelance", predominantly in the film, TV and broadcasting, theatre, and events sectors. Their working relationships can consist of repeated short contracts as employees, provision of services as self-employed sole traders, or through personal service companies, or any permutation of these arrangements.

Most of our "freelance" members accept the status quo of atypical working, although at some points in their working lives would welcome more stability and predictability, particularly at moments when family or caring issues arise. Whilst our freelance members have control over whether to accept work or not, the nature of the work is often excessively long and anti-social working hours, with unpredictability of actual working time, and engagements that are offered at very short notice. This militates against carers, or those with health issues, and BECTU has long campaigned that, for example, there should be greater efforts by industry associations to increase the engagement of women, who often have to drop out of the industry when starting families.

The pattern of a worker’s activity comprises a large number of separate, short term engagements, a worker may be regarded as self employed, even though each of their engagements, viewed in isolation, would suggest that they were an employee.

Getting work isn’t work easy. Our industry shamelessly exploits young people in particular. The worst thing is that it’s not struggling little Indies which do this out of desperation but it is part of the cynical business planning of some of the richest companies in the industry. Recently there have been some harrowing reports from the freelance sector of tough, and occasionally even illegal working conditions, in terms of long hours, low pay, or both – especially for entry-level employees working for independent producers with low budgets. Britain already has a recognised culture of long hours. A recent poll showed that only two in five freelancers actually work less than 48 hours a week. Most freelancers in our industry are probably working long hours on a fairly regular basis.

That is why I support this motion - I believe that good work is work that is engaging, gives people a voice, treats them fairly, is good for their wellbeing, and helps them to progress. There’s an old labour movement maxim “A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work", Seems fair to me in 2017 - Congress please support this motion.

Access the full text of the group motion here.