Demand an end to the freelance rip off
Fair treatment for freelance journalists must be central to business reforms on which the UK government is consulting. The union has launched a new campaign and urges engagement from freelances.
The NUJ has launched a campaign to publicise the consultation and persuade journalists, whether members or not, to share their experiences of ill treatment by publishers and broadcasters.
“News platforms have been treating freelances worse and worse in recent years, today there is a real chance to make a difference”, said Laura Davison, NUJ general secretary.
She added:
“Freelance journalists have never had a better opportunity to get their issues in front of legislators. I want as many as possible to respond to this consultation, write to their MPs, and encourage other freelances to do the same.”
The Department for Business and Trade is running the consultation which is open until 23 October. Launching that, Keir Starmer, prime minister, said:
“From builders and electricians to freelance designers and manufacturers – hardworking people are being forced to spend hours chasing payments instead of growing their businesses. It’s unfair, it’s exhausting, and it’s holding Britain back. So, our message is clear: it’s time to pay up.”
The NUJ campaign will focus on business practices unusual to the media that affect freelance journalists. These include:
- kill fees where journalists receive only a fraction of an agreed fee when commissioned material is not used;
- payment on publication, where payment for commissioned work is held up for months because publication has been delayed;
- implicit contracts where journalists are deemed to have agreed to terms they have never seen because it is ‘standard practice’;
- and enforced ‘self billing’ where journalists can’t control what they are paid for work supplied
Tim Dawson, NUJ freelance organiser, said:
“Freelance journalists are forced to accept business practices that any other sole trader would reject out of hand. Imagine commissioning a plumber to install a new bathroom, and then refusing payment because no one had actually used the facility, or not paying for desert in restaurants because ‘your policy’ is to pay for the main course and expect everything else thrown in for free? Every day NUJ officials deal with freelance journalists suffering real hardship because of their unfair treatment by news platforms. The government says that it is listening, so all freelance journalists should be raising their voices.”
Stop the freelance rip off campaign page.
