Fair Fringe win

Edinburgh City Council has today (August 24) backed the Fair Fringe campaign, which will see the living wage and minimum hour contracts introduced at all Council-run venues including the Assembly Rooms and the Usher Hall.

Bryan Simpson from Unite Hospitality said, “We are very pleased that Edinburgh City Council has voted to back the Fair Fringe campaign and our aims to improve the wages and working conditions of Fringe Staff.”

“Last year we were inundated with complaints from workers about their treatment at the Fringe,” he added. “We heard horror stories of workers receiving notional fees for 5 weeks full-time work, bar workers doing lengthy trial shifts unpaid and PR staff getting ÂŁ10 to hand out 1000 leaflets.”

“This year we’ve decided to do something about it and have teamed up with activists in Edinburgh and Better than Zero to launch the Fair Fringe campaign which seeks to improve the wages and working conditions of the staff who work so hard to make it one of the greatest cultural events in the World.”

“We’re asking all venues (big and small) to sign-up to our Fair Fringe charter to ensure staff are given proper contracts, the breaks that they are entitled to and a wage they can live on and will be working with the Fringe Society to write out to all Fringe employees to that end,” Simpson noted.

“Unite will be offering advice and support to any workers being exploited to ensure that they get what they are entitled to and we will be encouraging them to join the union to assist our efforts to win full trade union recognition and secure sustainable agreements on pay and terms and conditions for events and hospitality workers.”

The leader of Edinburgh city council, Andy McVey whose SNP Group also voted in support of the Charter said, “We need to work on spreading good practices across venues and everyone else that is involved with the festivals this month.”

Former Lord Provost and Labour Councillor Donald Wilson seconded the motion. He added, “We are keen to support this campaign as it promotes fairness and justice for those working in our festivals and venues of which we are very proud. We need to ensure that our own house is in order and to lead by example so that others will see the benefits to the city and to the businesses themselves.”

Find out more about the Fair Fringe campaign here.