
Issue No 21		09 July 1999

News

The Hills Are Alive - With the Sound of Pay Cuts

Performers on the The Sound of Music are threatening to walk out of the upcoming musical after promoters presented a penny-pinching pay deal which would leave them without wages when the show takes to the road.

Normally performers sign a single contract for national tours, providing them with award minimum rates of pay when the production is moving from one state to another.

But the Gordon Frost Organisation, under advice from the Australian Entertainment Employerds Association, has presented the Von Trapps and Co with separate contracts for the Sydney and Melbourne runs which would leave the cast standard without income for up to a month.

Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance state secretary Michel Hryce says the contracts undermine an industry standard and has commenced action in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to have the contracts overturned.

In the AIRC this week, deputy preseident Colin Polites heard evidence from performers before stating that the two contracts were a "device purely to avoid the payment of performers during the lay-off period". He also questioned the legality of requiring the performers to sign both contracts simultaneously. The AIRC will reconvene hearings next week if the matter is not resolved.

"The reality is that performers are tied down for the whole tour, it's not realistic to think they could pick up alternate work between the Sydney and Melbourne dates," Hryce says.

Performer Elaine Smith (State Coroner) saysit should not be the actgors' responsibilities to subsidse a producers pre-production operational costs. "Payment to actors for the lay-off period should be part of the production's budget," she says.

The outcome of this dispute has implications across the industry, there are currently eight national theatrical productions in pre-production and the cast of Chicago has commenced a similar campaign.

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  Issue 21 contents

Interview: The Future Is Now
Steve Klaasen is just 22. He works for a union. He explains why he is not an endangered species.

Unions: Showdown at the Hyde Park Plaza
The ACTU's Organising guru looks at the lessons to be learned from the recent dispute.

History: A Rich Vein in the Rock
Every mine, like a human being, has its life. Mount Morgan and Queenstown between 1880 and 1930.

International: Jailed Unionist Freed
Global union voices delight at the release of Indonesian labour activist.

Review: Ten (More) Steps to Revolution
Cultural theoritician Snag Cleaver puts the schooner glass to the Eighties.

Labour Review: What's New at the Information Centre
Check out the latest issue of Labour Review, a resource for unions on industrial developments

» Aussies To Go For Gold in Foreign Uniforms?

» Howard Warned: Time Ticking On Entitlements

» Hotels Charge Triple Time - Now for the Workers

» Air Attack - Qantas Telesales Under Fire

» The Hills Are Alive - With the Sound of Pay Cuts

» National Trust Places Green(back) Bans on Unions

» Body Hire Campaign Hots Up

» Attack of the Killer Skips Rocks City

» A Holiday With a Social Consience

» East Timor: Emergency Public Meeting Called

» Guest Report

» Sport

» Trades Hall

» Piers Watch

» Conference to Heal Rifts in the Labour Movement

» Fabians Scour Poll Ashes

» Holiday Confusion

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