Emerging Workers: a fair future for entering the creative industries

Emerging Workers: a fair future for entering the creative industries

Representation & Action for Students of the Arts in the UK

Contents Background Proposal National Minimum/Living Wage Length of Work Experience Funding Widening Participation Apprenticeships Volunteering Employer Benefits Wider Benefits Conclusion

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Background As the Arts Group formed in 2008, it rapidly became clear that graduates from our courses (despite being charged the same as their peers from other disciplines) stood to gain less financial benefit from their degrees than any other category of HE. Some graduates would leave university with a additional lifetime earnings expectation – the ‘graduate premium’ – in the negative. Potentially, they would be worth less as a consequence of their learning.1 Some of the reasons behind this astonishingly low worth attributed to the labour of our graduates are clear and can be illustrated by simply walking into many media businesses and fashion houses where one would observe a large number of unpaid and low-waged interns that seem to power much of the entrance level departments. Perhaps more disturbingly, in our curious bubble, National Minimum Wage (NMW) and the employment rights of those offered in world of finance, business and even the public sector seems alien.

There are a variety of reasons for embarking on an education in the Arts. We must, of course, defend the validity and worth of our creative and cultural contribution on grounds other than cold financial return, it is this that saves our economic worth and input becoming an exercise in box-ticking and accountancy.

These factors however, must not be used to defend the outright exploitation of our emerging workers, and now is the time to take a stand, to elevate the status and remuneration for the skills we spend years honing.

Following formation of the Art’s Group the decision to adopt a formal stance in regards to emerging workers within the creative industries was taken. Working with associated groups and bodies the group seeks to develop and lobby towards implementation of a recognized and legislated practice for emerging workers within the professional environment.

The Economist - Making it pay: Is a university degree still worth the time and money it takes? – September 18th 2008 http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory. cfm?story_id=12270990

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Proposal The Arts Group calls for the following action to be taken to build a better future for the students and graduates of the Arts across the UK. 1. The affirmation of existing legislation, and (where absent) the creation of new employment legislation to limit the activities whereby organizations, businesses and individuals are allowed to make use of individuals’ services (whether graduates or otherwise) in adherence to the following terms of reference: Work Experience To a maximum of 4 weeks unpaid (or reasonable equivalent, e.g. 160 hours) Must contribute to travel expenses Should include dedicated support provision from the host Must be offered with a clear indication of what the placement candidate will gain from the experience If unpaid must have no fixed hours of work or duties enforced.

If paid must offer at least the National Minimum Wage Internships Up to a maximum of 3 months Must be paid at a rate equivalent to the applicable local living wage Work Placements Must be carried out as part of an accredited course Should be paid at least NMW or delivered with a full financial student support package at least equivalent to during study

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2. The creation of a national body2 with responsibility of defining, implementing and administrating the above measures.

These changes should be led by the relevant Government ministries, and associated bodies/organizations. We suggest that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) or the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (DBIS) would be most suitable for this role, working in conjunction with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) due to the predominance of poor practice in the Creative Sector.

These should be applied across both the Public and Private Sector, and should be considered in more detail in relation to the areas of Volunteering and Apprenticeships to be discussed later in this document.

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or allocation to an appropriate existing entity

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National Minimum/ Living Wage This debate is not intended to devalue or restrict the potential of work experience to enable access. In establishing the category of “work experience” and in particular where individuals may be exempt from the NMW and not class as workers it is suggested that existing guidelines3 be built upon and formed into legislation.

Recommendations from the DTI’s work with Television employers4 provide a good skeleton of guidelines on which to base our stance. In particular the following areas are of interest for integration: Exemption to the NMW: •Students on placements as part of their course – the DTI report recommended an employers contact with Skillset to deliver this, a compulsory relationship with a body to ensure accountability may desirable as part of our stance.

•“Individuals who are undertaking placements that consist entirely of work shadowing will not come within the National Minimum Wage legislation since these individuals are not performing ‘work’.” – It is perhaps not unreasonable to restrict this activity to within the 4 week limits suggested earlier.

•“Individuals who are undertaking placements on a genuine volunteer basis i.e. who come and go as they please and who are under ‘no obligation’ to perform activities in accordance with your instructions will not be under any obligation to perform work or services.”

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From the DTI’s report, is would be wise to note in particular the warning to employers around the allocation of duties: “If an unpaid volunteer becomes subject to a sufficient degree of obligation to undertake tasks just like a worker, or employee, or fulfils an actual job, then National Minimum Wage should be paid. In short, if a genuine volunteer placement becomes more than a volunteer learning activity, National Minimum Wage may be applicable.”

For periods of “internship”, we suggest the use of Living wage as the minimum acceptable payment. National Minimum Wage creation and enforcement has always clearly been intended at enforcing a decent standard at the bottom of the job market. As those accepted for internships will frequently be graduates, and certainly carry with them already a degree of skill and learning we encourage the view that their labour should be recognized based on these skills. The living wage is an appropriately quantifiable minimum standard for this higher level of remuneration to be based on.

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Examples to follow from the DTI’s GUIDELINES FOR TELEVISION EMPLOYERS OFFERING WORK EXPERIENCE PLACEMENTS TO INDIVIDUALS at http:// www.berr.gov.uk/files/file37253.pdf 4 DTI’s GUIDELINES FOR TELEVISION EMPLOYERS OFFERING WORK EXPERIENCE PLACEMENTS TO INDIVIDUALS at http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file37253.pdf Image by Christopher Snape

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Length of Work Experience The DTI’s report provides guidance concerning the length of work experience the report: “Our advice is that generally two weeks is an appropriate period for an unpaid placement, but where, for it to be a genuine learning experience, it is appropriate for it to be longer, it should run for no more than 4 weeks. However, if the National Minimum Wage applies then the minimum wage should be paid for the length of the placement.�

Feedback from the Innovation Centre at Central Saint Martins has advised that 3 months is needed for an intern to get the most from the experience. It is therefore advised we adopt the 4 week limit for work experience, and 3 months for paid internships.

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Funding The cost of a full time position at NMW for one year has been estimated at around ÂŁ10.5K in salaries. Due to the concentration of creative industries within London and similar areas, where this figure would represent an extremely low annual income, the argument for basing the internships around the Living Wage is persuasive.

In light of the large proportion of Small and Medium Enterprises that make up the creative sector, the application of this legislation must be paired with an accessible and adequate funding strategy to make bursaries available to pay for interns. There are currently multiple initiatives aiming towards the establishment of schemes in this area, it would be opportune for the Arts Group to encourage the amalgamation of these into a nationalized scheme with an emphasis on the ease of application for employers to be able to access this to deliver paid internships. The application process for funding could seek to ensure a decent learning experience is provided to interns and should be coupled with a measure of accountability to ensure that the process is an authentic educational programme, and not simply a tier of lower paid professionals.

Image attributed to Fir0002/Flagstaffotos http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/GNU_Free_Documentation_License

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Widening Participation The broad objectives of enabling those from a wider spectrum of socio-economic backgrounds to enter and flourish in the Arts is essential. Much of the work in the field of Widening Participation (WP) by educational establishments understandably focuses on the recruitment and progression of those from targeted groups. This work has yet to engage with the issue of how these individuals are expected to enter a careers market that demands the level of unpaid experience after their qualification.

The widespread perception that the Arts do not represent a profitable career path is justified (as the graduate premium scales show), and the experience of many young people being discouraged by parents from creative aspirations in favour of more ‘academic’ routes is familiar to us all.

Though we do and must continue to support initiatives to engage WP groups, to truly enable a cross-class demographic to flourish in the creative sector, the potential of the individual to earn at a decent level compared to their peers in other disciplines must be properly established.

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Apprenticeships Development in this area should serve to reinforce and complement good practice in the fields of both Volunteering and Apprenticeships.

There is much development in the delivery of a Apprenticeships, which should be supported in particular for their ability to act outside of the realms of the university or other traditional learning establishment, and hence to address many of the issues in educating a broader range of individuals. If any position is to be taken by the Arts Group, it would be advisable that this were to be in support of recognition of the value of these programmes for development, and to ensure that adequate financial support is provided to enable the best possible access. In particular, it is worth considering the apprenticeships that exist within the Arts outside of the formal programmes, and may lack adequate financial support packages to enable open access.

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Volunteering The blurred line between interns/work experience/volunteering needs to be removed.

We should acknowledge the ongoing contention around the classification of “voluntary workers”, but equally note that legislation in this area should be geared from side of encouraging organizations to enable paid employment wherever possible, not to reward a reliance upon volunteers performing professional duties.

It is suggested that the following be used as guidelines when considering how volunteering fits with the proposals – in line with previous reviews of the NMW policy Volunteering should: • Only occur within charities, voluntary organisations, associated fund-raising bodies or statutory bodies • Not replicate the experience, structure or responsibilities that would be expected of “working”.

• Out of pocket expenses should be paid which may include a small meal allowance for longer volunteering shifts.

• Travel costs to and from the place of volunteering should be paid to the volunteer.

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Employer Benefits A reliance on (what are, for all intents and purposes) unpaid workers in any sector cannot be defended on the grounds of a historic reliance. Any business or industry that cannot operate without the exploitation of any aspect of its workforce is not tune with contemporary thinking, does not present an acceptable financial model, and cannot be allowed to continue. In organizations that currently rely upon a continuous stream of unpaid, long-term “internships”, an increased turnover of interns and work experience placements will encourage a broader benefit to those emerging into the job market, and provide a diversity of skills and backgrounds to employers.

Wider Effects It is acknowledged that various aspects of the government and charity sector currently rely upon a large body of unpaid or low waged ‘interns’ as part of their activities. Whilst this has been allowed to grow relatively unchecked, there is a growing body of good practice, with various MPs now paying at least NMW, and the remainder under increasing pressure. Whilst it is commendable to come into contact with individuals who freely give of their time, and have frequently worked to “afford” to be able to take on this kind of experience, it is notable that this effectively creates a streaming process for entering into a career in government and the civil service which relies upon an individual being able to “volunteer” for an extended period. As with the Arts and Creative industries, this creates a definite hierarchy of the likely backgrounds that individuals who can afford to take this route are probably to come from, and effectively perpetuates an exclusive system within our systems of leadership. It may also be worth noting that this also places a ambiguous sense of value on the labour of those engaged in politics, a factor worth considering in mind the dispute around the remuneration of elected representatives in 2009, and the numerous calls for MPs pay to be increased, and decreased reliance on the expenses system.

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Conclusion With the creative sector set to be one of the fastest developing in our economy, and aspirations for an increasing number of graduates to be produced, it is our responsibility to make sure that legislation and an imperative exists for them to be able to earn a decent living from their talents.

Now is the time to interrupt the damaging hierarchy of disciplines that continues to place less value on the Arts than any other area of practice. We should not be afraid to take a hard stance and to affect a fundamental change in a culture that has been allowed to grow to dangerous proportions. The argument that we should continue to emphasise the unquantifiable value of creative practice has clearly effected little positive change for the average graduate leaving an Arts course.

If there is ever to be any real progress in widening the demographic of applicants and workers in the Arts, it is fundamental that we enable the average career in the sector to be one that provides a decent level of income in comparison to other disciplines. Though it is easy to list those exceptions who flourish and gather extreme wealth from their creativity, it is our duty to stand up for everyone exiting our courses to make a living from the Arts – not just the ‘celebrities’.

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It is not acceptable for the reliance of businesses and organizations at any level of a sub-market of unpaid workers to be used an excuse for this poor practice. Where SMEs and public sector bodies have difficulties in migrating to fair standards of employment, we must seek to provide adequate funding, training and support. If enacted, our recommendation will inevitably encourage a higher level of earnings in any sector it has an impact on.

This should be transparently condoned as positive progress, and in the arts in particular as a prompt for growth and innovation. As the UK economy seeks to deliver an increasingly service-based set of industries, we should view the opportunities of globalization and the potential of our working population to export and share intellectual property and skills, as fundamentally linked with ensuring these aspects are associated with a higher market value.

The further reaching consequence of any progress in these matters has been noted, and we do not believe the measures we suggest should be limited in their affect to the creative industries solely. Our organizations have been given ample time to adjust to providing ethical employment practices in this matter, as have the political contexts previously cited.

In all these cases the enforcement of basic standards, and the encouragement of good practice which rewards appropriately (rather than encouraging a spiralling competitive level of self-exploitation and poor practice), is the only real way to enable a dynamic job market that is truly accessible and empowering to both emerging and established workers and their employers.

Core writing by Kit Friend, Chair of the Arts Group.

Extensive contribution by Arts Group members, Andrea Strachan & Niki Haywood.

Images provided by Jake Abrams | Squinting.org www.artsgroup.org.uk 14

The Arts Group is supported and enabled by many other agencies and organizations.

We would like to thank in particular the following who have contributed to this report...

We would also like to acknowledge the valuable work and assistance provided by the staff of Skillset, Arts Council England, Creative & Cultural Skills, and Central Saint Martins’ Innovation Centre This report and its recommendations are endorsed by the Aldwych Group