Actors could take action over pay

Press, 18 March 1985, Page 7

Actors could take action over pay

Professional actors in Canterbury may take action in support of their campaign for a wage increase. Canterbury members of Actors Equity would decide this week what action they would take to highlight their stalled wage negotiations, said the Canterbury branch secretary, Mr John Stewart, yesterday. Award talks between the actors and employers broke down about three weeks ago. Actors Equity wants the wages of a fully trained actor increased 50 per cent, from the present minimum of $2OB a week before tax to $3OO a week. Professional actors were among the lowest-paid workers in New Zealand, said Mr Stewart. Normal criteria for assessing wage claims were

not appropriate for the actors’ claim, he said. A top actor may only gross $2OB a week, while a first-year trainee may get only $l4B before tax. Government guidelines of 6 or 7 per cent for increases were “totally absurd” when applied to such low wages. It also had to be remembered that actors’ wages were not regular. Actors could not afford to maintain their careers on such low intermittent incomes, he said. Theatres in Auckland and Wellington had lost staff and had difficulty in casting plays recently because experienced actors could no longer afford to continue acting. Eventually Canterbury theatres would have similar problems, Mr Stewart said. Actors Equity’s campaign

has been supported by the Independent Producers and Directors’ Guild. The guild’s executive director, Ms Sue Kedgley, said the actors’ problems would be eased if there was an active film industry employing many actors. Higher pay for actors in films provided a subsidy for the minimal wages paid in New Zealand theatres, she said. The problem was that at present, because of the difficulty in raising the big money needed to make films, there was very little film production happening, she said. “The lack of activity is hurting everybody — technicians and film-makers as well as actors — but it is definitely contributing to the precarious position of actors in the community.”