Creative Toolkit Hosts New Entrants Seminar

Offers of unpaid work in television production are a blight on the sector and are illegal. That was the clear message from a discussion session held at a major trade show last week.
The session, produced by the people behind Creative Toolkit, a new site aimed at new entrants in the creative media and arts sectors, drew a packed audience. According to union Bectu this is proof positive of the abuses, which need to be stamped out.
Andy Snell, Business Unit Head of the National Minimum Wage Compliance Unit, the HMRC department responsible for handling complaints about non-payment of the national minimum wage, was unequivocal about workers' entitlement to be paid at least the national minimum wage.
Sharon Elliott, the union's communications officer, urged the audience to 'think critically' about the opportunities which come their way.
She said: "New entrants are educated and they have skills and what we want is for new entrants to recognise that they can influence a difficult situation by being more confident about selling their skills to secure the most basic of entitlements, the right to be paid."
Creative Toolkit is part of a project supported by the Union Modernisation Fund to assist vulnerable workers in the sectors covered by BECTU.
To support the site a series of Help Notes is being produced; the first two, Business Skills for Freelances and Essential Tips for CV Writing.
(LB)