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Short thead: I'm not sure people at the top of the creative industries have quite grasped the panic that's gripping the people who do most of the work in the creative industries. Many are *still* not going to get paid under Covid-19 schemes because of their freelance status.
So this is among *the* most dynamic bits of the UK economy. It thrives on the kind of flexible workforce that public policy has been promoting for 30+ years and the value to the economy that comes from their dynamism is vast.
Oh yes - and they're largely ineligible for any of the help that almost everyone else is getting.
How many will want to remain in this sector once all of this is over? The outlook is bleak. https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/freelancers/freelancer-exodus-on-horizon/5149080.article
How many will want to remain in this sector once all of this is over? The outlook is bleak. https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/freelancers/freelancer-exodus-on-horizon/5149080.article
Not only is it a dynamic part of the economy - it's also one that had an acute and growing skills shortage, even before a large section of its workforce started evaluating their life-choices a month ago. https://www.screenskills.com/media/2332/2019-03-14-hetv-research.pdf
And when everyone goes back to work at the end of this crisis, and the PAYE people who have been furloughed (unlike the PAYE Freelancers - many of whom haven't) return to their PAYE jobs, will the cultural sector just snap back to work and re-employ all of those freelances?
Probably not. March-July is a very busy part of the film/TV calendar. Not working during that period will result in many people losing well over 50% of their annual earnings. Music tech people will lose the festival season almost entirely. https://www.radiox.co.uk/news/coronavirus-how-effect-events-gigs-festivals/
Losing three months earnings for PAYE people is 25% of their earnings (before a lot of it is topped up by the furlough).
Losing March - October earnings (which is what culture freelancers are looking at) may lose them the bulk of their earnings - and they get no furlough top-up.
Losing March - October earnings (which is what culture freelancers are looking at) may lose them the bulk of their earnings - and they get no furlough top-up.
And then what about the poor sods who spend ÂŁthousands each year to maintain a suite of kit that they need to work with? A sound mixer on a TV drama has about ÂŁ160k worth of gear. They expect to rent it to employers for ÂŁ2-3k per month when they are also working for them.
All of this gives the employers the flexibilty they've ever asked for. They've managed to shovel all of the risk related to their industry down the pipe to freelancers. All of that expensive kit will be sitting idle as well. This will crush many cultural industry freelancers.
Being a bit of a lefty I could make a cheap political point about 'Thatchers Children' and how culture-industry freelancers are the embodiment of everything that people say in either a cheery/rude way when they talk about "neoliberalism".
I normally try to avoid doing that, but it just writes itself at the moment. People have been absolutely shafted in the past six weeks. They are shitting themselves. Theyre totally reevaluating their life choices.
They're wondering if they should go back to an industry that expects 12+ hour days. That wrecks family life, mental and physical health and involves tip-toeing around a cadre of management that is, frankly, not the best management in the world.
https://bectu.org.uk/get-involved/eyes-half-shut/
https://bectu.org.uk/get-involved/eyes-half-shut/
All of the people I'm talking to (my bag is people in TV and film drama along with freelancers in factual and entertainment TV) are saying that they need a whole new deal - from government (employment rights, tax) but also from their employers. https://bectu.org.uk/get-involved/a-new-deal/
And apols for ranting, from a personal account, about my day-job. I'd not normally do this, but I am absolutely gobsmacked at how little attention this is getting. The injustice, but also the economic stupidity...
