Unions shouldn't shriek in horror when they get national press attention that highlights embarassing inequities in wages, says The EvilImp.
It's a well known fact that the worst thing you can do in politics is tell the truth. Even though people more often than not demand honesty, the voices opposed to that honesty always seem to be the loudest.
A few days ago the Equity Dance website released a statement that basically condemned the Royal Opera House in London when, once again, they offered jobs to professional dancers in one of their opera productions with a pay rate of just £358.73 per week.
The Royal Opera House receives over £24million annually in public subsidy from Arts Council England.
The Equity Dance statement stated the simple truth. Professional dancers were being paid an hourly rate below that of the box office staff working in the same building. The people answering the phones selling very expensive tickets were being paid more money than the skilled, trained, professional dancers who would be performing on the stage.
The statement read (in part);
"We see that the weekly rate during rehearsals calculates to an hourly rate of just £9.14 an hour, which when compared to the rate of £10.70 per hour you offer to Box Office Sales Assistants (advertised April 2014), this seems highly disproportionate"
Equity Dance simply told the truth but the main Equity union didn't like that one little bit... Keep reading on Article19
It's a well known fact that the worst thing you can do in politics is tell the truth. Even though people more often than not demand honesty, the voices opposed to that honesty always seem to be the loudest.
A few days ago the Equity Dance website released a statement that basically condemned the Royal Opera House in London when, once again, they offered jobs to professional dancers in one of their opera productions with a pay rate of just £358.73 per week.
The Royal Opera House receives over £24million annually in public subsidy from Arts Council England.
The Equity Dance statement stated the simple truth. Professional dancers were being paid an hourly rate below that of the box office staff working in the same building. The people answering the phones selling very expensive tickets were being paid more money than the skilled, trained, professional dancers who would be performing on the stage.
The statement read (in part);
"We see that the weekly rate during rehearsals calculates to an hourly rate of just £9.14 an hour, which when compared to the rate of £10.70 per hour you offer to Box Office Sales Assistants (advertised April 2014), this seems highly disproportionate"
Equity Dance simply told the truth but the main Equity union didn't like that one little bit... Keep reading on Article19