MEAA members to petition Australian theatregoers in bid for new performers collective agreement

Major theatrical productions to be targeted by members of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) after the break down of talks over a new performers collective agreement (PCA).

Theatre patrons can expect to be leafletted by MEAA delegates outside Australian performance venues in the new year, in a campaign to lift the pay of about 6,000 actors and dancers along with protections against workplace fatigue and stability of employment.

MEAA is seeking 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.

Major productions such as Beauty and the Beast and Wicked in Sydney, and Moulin Rouge and Grease in Melbourne, could be targeted, along with Adelaide and Sydney festival performances and productions by the country’s flagship theatre companies.

As reported by Australasian Leisure Management on 16th November, year-long negotiations for a new performers collective agreement between the MEAA and Live Performance Australia (LPA) - the peak body representing commercial and independent promoters and producers - broke down last month.

As reported by Guardian Australia today, inlike the recent actors’ strike in the USA, 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.

Calling on theatregoers to pressure the LPA and the producers it represents, MEAA’s Director of Equity, Michelle Rae advised “these are people we turn out night after night to see.

“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 16th 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 MEAA has been negotiating for a new 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 LPA statement advised “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).

“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.