The United Services Union says expert Civic Theatre staff are among the worst-paid theatre employees in Australia and has gone into bat to get them a better deal from City of Newcastle.
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The casual staff have been involved in negotiations with the council for several years about moving onto the enterprise agreement that covers other city employees.
Council chief executive officer Jeremy Bath told the USU in a letter last month that it would not be "fiscally responsible" to shift the theatre staff onto the agreement given the impact of COVID-19 on the Civic's and the council's finances.
A council spokesperson said on Friday that City of Newcastle would "consider the request to move its approximately 85 Civic Theatre staff on permanent, casual and seasonal arrangements onto its enterprise agreement as part of the next round of EA negotiations" next year.
USU organiser Luke Hutchinson said moving the Civic technicians, stage managers, ushers and other staff onto the same agreement as their council colleagues should be a priority.
He said the Civic staff were "in the wilderness" as the only workers in NSW left on the state-based Live Theatre and Concert Award, which offered pay rates "well below" the industry standard contained in federal awards and enterprise agreements.
Civic staff who spoke to the Newcastle Herald on condition of anonymity said they felt like the council did not value them.
"It shows they don't care about us. We seem to be the butt end of the council," one said. "They use your experience; they use your knowledge of the industry. It's a lack of respect, really."
Casual staff said they earned a maximum $26 an hour, despite having decades of experience in sound, lighting and stage management.
The staff and the union said there was "no excuse" for the council not to pay staff more as their wages were recoverable from the theatre groups and promoters that hired the venue.
"They make a huge profit off our labour because the clients are charged hourly nearly twice what we're paid," one staff member said.
The staff were left on the dole until the Civic reopened a month ago as the council was ineligible for JobKeeper.
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