Organisers of the prestigious annual Mobo Awards are being urged by media and entertainment union BECTU to pay all staff working on this year’s event which is being staged at the SECC in Glasgow next Wednesday 5 October.
The appeal comes in response to an advertisement for runners and ushers to work on the event http://www.mobo.com/node/4638 which confirms that no payment is being offered. The union believes that Mobo is signalling an intention to breach the national minimum wage regulations; the Act stipulates that all work should be paid at least at the level of the national minimum wage.
The current national minimum wage (formally for the over-21s) is £5.93 per hour; this is set to rise to £6.08 on 1 October.
In a statement BECTU said the following
“Everyone will be asking themselves how a commercial enterprise, working within the context of a global, multi-million pound business, can think it is right to exploit weak enforcement of the national minimum wage by offering unpaid placements for what is responsible and business-critical work,”
[Thanks Kay]
……
Oh dear. But this is how the world of media works. There are so many young people lining up and willing to work for free within the entertainment industry, eager to get a foot in the door, and media organisations have been guilty of exploiting this eagerness for years. I don’t see this ever changing.
Categories: UK News
MAD NEWS UK 
Money has to be saved – how else will the JLS private jet be paid for???
*DEAD*
Got to agree with BECTU.
Just looking at the events site its full with so called Partners and Sponsors so someone is getting paid. They can’t claim that they haven’t got money.
I reminds me of an earlier post that you carried about some girl doing unpaid work for the organisation.