Call to action from Sports Freelancers Collective

A note to our members and freelancers.

For the first time in seven decades, the FWA has formed a coalition with the Sports Journalists' Association, The Cricket Writers' Club,  The Rugby Union Writers' Association, The Lawn Tennis Writers' Association, British Athletics Writers' Association, The Black Collective of Media in Sport, Sports Media LGBT and the Basketball Journalists’ Association

We have joined forces to protect the thousands of freelancers who have been locked out of the industry due to the coronavirus pandemic and now face economic ruin.

The coalition has formed quickly following the mass cancellation of sporting events around the world, and welcomes all sports media organisations to join us.

Today we’ve called on the Government to help our members whose industry has been entirely shut down. Specifically we have demanded that Boris Johnson should:

1. Follow the lead of Germany and Canada and provide compensation or a base salary for freelance workers.

2. Request that HMRC defer its date to collect payments on account, currently due on the 31st of July 2020, until December 2020 as a minimum, and to review this at a later stage.

3. Call for IR35 to be abolished

4. Include our members who fall ill during this pandemic in receiving statutory sick pay for the time of their illness.

5. Address the shortfall of support for the majority in the private rental sector, by organising the deferment of rental payments until all supporters and workers are allowed back into fully open sporting stadia.

We will update you with the progress of this unprecedented but necessary move to protect the welfare of our friends and members in sport.

Visit this page for the latest update: http://footballwriters.co.uk/news/sports-freelancer-collective-latest/