Festival treated actors as volunteers - tribunal

The BBC has approached Cambridge Shakespeare Festival for comment

Two actors performing at an arts festival should have been considered as workers and not volunteers, a judge has ruled.

An employment tribunal found the actors were only paid modest expenses despite working six-day weeks whilst engaged by the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival in 2022.

It said the pair were subject to a "high degree of control" by the operator of the festival and required to work "extremely long days" which extended to include leafleting to promote the event.

The BBC has approached the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival for comment.

Held annually since 1987, the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival holds performances of the plays of William Shakespeare over eight weeks in July and August and claims to attract more than 25,000 visitors annually.

Equity, a trade union for the performing arts and entertainment industry, said the actors should have been entitled to at least the national minimum wage and other basic employment rights such as holiday pay, minimum rest breaks and pensions.

The performers - Kit McGuire and Elizabeth Graham - were given only £50 and £150 per week "towards expenses", the tribunal found.

In a statement, Equity said: "Cambridge Shakespeare Festival must be held accountable to this ruling, which constitutes another major victory for Equity in reaffirming that performers are generally ‘workers’ in law.

"This means they are entitled to basic employment rights that cannot be circumvented by an engager’s attempts to cast them as ‘volunteers’ or ‘self-employed’ through bogus contracts and statements."

The judgement found both Mr McGuire and Ms Graham were an "integral part" of the festival and could not accept any other acting work during the period they were engaged by Cambridge Shakespeare Festival.

The tribunal - held by Judge Louise Brown - found Dr David Crilly, the artistic director of the festival, exerted control which included that actors showed "enough deference to him and followed everything he asked".

Dr Crilly, in cross-examination, stated that actors were required to help with other aspects of the festival other than acting.

He admitted that “everyone does whatever needs to be done to get the event to happen” and that there was a “team ethic… to do everything required for the event to take place”.