Theatre pay offer falls short

West End theatre members are to decide on a new pay offer.

Following a meeting at ACAS on 28th January the employers' organisation the Society of London Theatres (SOLT) has countered BECTU's pay claim with an offer of 3.25% and a forum to discuss pay and flexible working.

A mass meeting of BECTU members on 5 February will decide whether to trigger industrial action procedures following a consultative ballot at the end of last year which returned a 98% majority for strike action if SOLT failed to substantially increase the pay offer above 1.6%.

Union negotiators believe that the proposed "forum" is an attempt to reintroduce changes to terms and conditions that were rejected by West End Theatre staff last year.

"This new offer falls a long way short of our demand for a living wage for West End theatre workers," said BECTU organiser Mark David-Gray.

"The employers must grasp the essential point that theatre workers cannot live in London on an average wage of £6.33 an hour and will not trade a pay increase for hard-won benefits."

The anniversary date of the pay claim was 19 November 2001 and until the ACAS meeting SOLT had given a written undertaking to backdate any settlement. However, this was withdrawn and now the employers are proposing an implementation date of 28 January for their 3.25% pay offer. In real terms this reduces the pay offer to only 2.7%.

The latest pay offer would increase the average wage to just £6.54 an hour. This would place seven of West End theatre's 10 grades below the Council of Europe's £7.39 decency threshold and five grades below the Low Pay Unit's threshold of £6.82 per hour.

Mark David-Gray added: "What constitutes low pay is not a fixed monetary measure but is defined in relation to the level of earnings in a country and the level of income that is deemed necessary to provide for a household's basic needs.

"The Council of Europe has defined this 'decency threshold' as the equivalent of 68% of the average earnings of all full-time workers. All our members are seeking is a decent living wage."