See Tickets Quits STAR Amidst Threat of Strike Action
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Written by Elliott Batte
The UK's second largest ticket agency See Tickets has sensationally quit the industry's self regulatory body STAR (Society of Ticket Agents & Retailers) - ‘the leading self-regulatory body for the entertainment ticketing industry across the United Kingdom’ - after becoming embroiled in what has been described as a ‘bitter dispute’ with BECTU, a UK-based media and entertainment union.
See Tickets and BECTU have been in disagreement since as far back as October last year, but things took a new twist when it emerged that the ticketing company had withdrawn itself from STAR, making them the only major ticketing company not signed up with the consumer focused UK regulatory body. The dispute was started after BECTU ‘sought to enter into negotiation about serious concerns’ involving their London sales team, who are allegedly often short-staffed - and the threat of strike action has not been ruled out.
“I don’t know what the reasons are for them not signing up, but it seems a real pity when the code is there to help protect consumers and they are not participating in it,” said STAR secretary Jonathan Brown.
Reports from a Facebook page called ‘See Tickets Unfair’ suggest that See Tickets' management have refused to cooperate with the union - and has instead given notice that it will withdraw from their voluntary recognition deal, a move described as an ‘extraordinary measure’ to take in order to ignore the pleas of their workers.
The See Tickets Unfair Facebook page posted this message yesterday: "We have formed this page in solidarity with our fellow members at SEE Tickets because of the outrageous treatment they have received from senior management. BECTU has sought to enter into negotiation about serious concerns regarding persistent short-staffing levels in their London sales team.
Management have refused to enter into negotiation and rather than listen to their workers they have decided to withdraw from the voluntary recognition deal SEE Tickets has had with BECTU which has been in place since 2007. This seems an extraordinary measure to take in order to try to silence and ignore the concerns of their workers and will not work. Please like our page and help spread the word about the poor working conditions that our members are suffering from and which management do not wish to hear! Shame on you SEE tickets.”
Patrick Styles, the supervisory official for BECTU, first wrote to See Tickets in October, and has been trying to contact them for three months. He told Music Week: “If there is no movement on the part of the company with regard to engaging with us to address our members’ legitimate concerns, we will have to consider balloting. I met with members and reported the unreasonable and unhelpful stance taken by See Tickets about refusing to enter into constructive dialogue, instead giving three months’ notice of withdrawing from the voluntary recognition agreement.
“Members were shocked to hear that their senior management was not interested in discussing the legitimate concerns they have raised, and it was unanimously agreed that I should pursue these matters further.” .
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