Fashion Roundtable's CEO Tamara Cincik Announces a New Union for Fashion Assistants

Yesterday, according to some reports, was the gloomiest day of the year. Certainly January seems to be littered with these dates of doom and gloom. However in the midst of this, I’m really pleased that something I’ve been working on for the past 2 years is finally happening. While launching Fashion Roundtable I met several times with Jane Perry from the union BECTU which works with the film and theatre industry. During our conversations I made the case that stylist assistants need to be a part of the union too. I explained that they were very similar to the film industry's costume department teams but lacked the union support that costume departments and film teams enjoy in all aspects of their work— such as insurance, late payment and payment scales.

Thanks to the anonymous @fashionassistants Instagram page (which you can find here) it became apparent to me that today's fashion assistants are contending with the issues which I and many others dealt with when we were assistants; which let’s face it was years ago, as I last assisted in 1996! I have to add here that I was very lucky and worked for some great editors while I was assisting, and I was mostly paid fairly. However speaking to assistants, not only are many people being paid what I was paid in the mid-90s (talk about 0 inflation), there is also a lot of commercial work where none of the assistants are being paid properly or at all. As more and more people want to enter the industry, there is a real danger that only those who can afford to work for free will be the next generation of fashion editors.

@fashionassistants and I have worked with BECTU to develop this new union offer for membership at a hugely reduced sign up fee of just £7.50 a month, covering up to £10,000 worth of damaged or lost clothes on shoots, plus the protections of union representation against late or non-payments.

Jane Perry from BECTU said: “Fashion Assistants are the archetypal targets for exploitation: a glamourous industry attracting young people, for whom a decent wage is not the primary draw. By definition those from more diverse backgrounds are put off by not being able to draw from a bank of Mum & Dad. Just because a decent wage wasn’t the primary draw doesn’t mean that poor wages and/or poor treatment should be tolerated. However firstly BECTU need to appreciate the scale of the problems we have been told exist – that’s why we need as many Fashion Assistants as possible to fill in the survey. Additionally BECTU currently have a joining deal for Fashion Assistant of £7.50 per month for the first year. Once a member Fashion Assistants are able to take out BECTU’s insurance on items they carry as part of their job, PLI and for accidents at work – covering for loss of wages.”

Please add your voice by taking the survey here  and being a part of changing the way our assistants are treated. I really hope by this time next year, while the UK will be out of the EU, we will finally be looking after the most junior team members with both the dignity and respect they deserve.