Theatregoers can expect to be leafletted by union delegates outside Australian performance venues in the new year, in a campaign to lift the pay of about 6,000 actors and dancers.
Major productions such as Beauty and the Beast and Wicked in Sydney, and Moulin Rouge and Grease in Melbourne, could be targeted, along with a slew of Adelaide and Sydney festival performances and productions by the country’s flagship theatre companies.
Year-long negotiations for a new performers collective agreement – between the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) and the peak body representing commercial and independent promoters and producers, Live Performance Australia (LPA) – have broken down in recent weeks.
Unlike the recent actors’ strike in the US, under Australia’s Fair Work Act industry-wide strike action is not permitted. Only the employees of individual production and theatre companies would be able to take protected action, so it is unlikely any shows will be disrupted or cancelled during the campaign.
Instead, the MEAA’s director of equity, Michelle Rae, is calling on theatre-lovers to pressure the LPA and the producers it represents to agree to an across-the-board pay rise of $34, representing a 3% annual increase, on the $1,100.96 weekly salary an ensemble cast member of a major touring show typically earns.
“These are people we turn out night after night to see,” Rae said.
“As audiences, we are mesmerised by their skill and we think these people are probably worth thousands of dollars a week. But in actual fact they are just being paid above minimum wages. And for that, they are working nights, they are working weekends, they don’t have a family life balance.
“The producers say an actor’s failure to get a wage increase is the failure of their agent or their union. What we say is that the current system is actually stacked in the producer’s favour.”
At a 16 November performance of Beauty and the Beast at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre, audiences were petitioned outside the venue with MEAA leaflets urging them to email the LPA and demand better pay and conditions for the entertainers they were about to watch on stage.
The MEAA said the LPA has since received more than 1,000 emails supporting the pay rise.
The LPA did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.
Rae said the campaign would resume in January.
The MEAA has been negotiating performers collective agreements (PCA) with the LPA since the mid-1990s, enabling the union to collectively represent performer members across multiple employers.
A statement on the LPA website said employers in the industry had continued to increase wages over this period and many employers paid well in excess of PCA minimum rates.
The sticking point in current negotiations, which began in September 2022, is the union’s demand the pay rise is applied across the board, meaning those performers who have negotiated margins – individual agreements with their employers that pay higher than the PCA base rate – would also receive a salary increase.
“The difference between base rates and margins can vary from a few hundred dollars a week to several thousand dollars a week, depending on the performer’s experience and reputation and their ability to negotiate higher rates of pay (usually through their agent),” the LPA statement said.
“LPA does not agree that the proposed increases should be applied to margins. They should apply to the minimum rates specified in the PCA which mean all performers would receive an equitable increase in pay rates, regardless of their individual margin protections against workplace fatigue and stability of employment.”
The LPA offer stands at a 15.6% pay increase over three years and an increase to Sunday penalty rates, but only for performers on the base PCA rate.
In addition to the wage rise, the union is also asking for a limit on the number of times performers work back-to-back nine show working weeks, and improved continuity of employment and job security while touring.
Under the current contract system, if there is a layover period between a show moving from Melbourne to Sydney, for example, the cast does not get paid, yet they are prevented from taking on other performing work.
The cast members are still required to maintain their show-ready performance levels, choreography and scripts on their own, while waiting for the show to open in another city.
Rae said the contract system used in Australian live theatre is unfair and significantly punitive towards the employee, compared with most other industries.
“Unlike any other employee, a performer doesn’t have the right to resign,” she said.
“Once they’ve signed their contract, they can’t finish on that job until the contract is done. So if they got offered a better position, they can’t accept it or go for another role. They’re locked in.”
