In my most recent job there were a lot
of unresolved ethical issues. Most of these were brought under the
health and safety category, but also our welfare, which was quite
unsettling.
I'll give you a bit of background to my
job. I was a dancer as part of the Diamond Dancers touring Paphos,
Cyprus. We were part of an agency that sent us to hotels and bars. So
we would arrive at the venue, set out costumes, give our music to the
DJ and away we go! In the hotels, there where (mostly) a good back
stage area for us to change. But when we were sent to bars, the bar
is not equip for dancers needing a changing room, which is
understandable. So we would be put in any space they had. Some venues
we would have to change in an office and other times we were put in
spaces that where very unstable.We were put in stock rooms, which
were often full to the brim with barrels leaving not enough space for
two girls to change let alone four. We have had to change in a
kitchen where there has been broken glass on the floor. Other venues
have been very good about looking after us. Even when they only have
limited space. They have made sure that areas have been cordoned off
so that no one can come round and watch us getting changed. Other
venues, were not so courteous.
In the view of our health and safety, I
will start with the changing space. Many times, hotels had a lovely
back stage area, with lights round mirrors, the classic 'back stage'
area as you can imagine. Other times when the venues where not so
equip is when we had problems. Lack of space was one of the biggest
problems for us. This was because we had very many fast changes into
different costumes and having to rush to a space that was usually
quite far away from the performance area, then having to squeeze into
it was a hinderance for us.
More on changing spaces is that most
spaces were not prepared for us. There was a time when our changing
area was full with sixteen beer barrels stacked up high. With four
girls changing in an area with heavy things that could easily fall,
that is definitely not safe. Often we would be given an office room
that was still covered in papers and had things all over the desks,
leaving us to have to find a space to put our costumes. It was fine
for us to deal with but it hadn't be prepared knowing that the
dancers were coming. Another time we were given a kitchen to change
in which had broken glass all over the floor. The bar at that point
was under staffed and very busy for our performance, but it still
wasn't very fair for us having to put our costumes onto the broken
glass as we had large costumes with feathers, so they couldn't have
all just sat one one chair.
One venue we were told to change in the
stock room. It was covered in a white dusting of powder. We soon
discovered that this was vermin poison as the number of dead
cockroaches laying everywhere were found. THIS is where we drew the
line and asked to be given another changing area. Which we were
granted, but unfortunately..we were not asked back to this venue..
Another health and safety problem we
had were the floors. Most of the bars have been designed for
performers, with built in lights and an area for the performers to
entertain. But they have not been designed for dancers. In the day
time the bar's performance space is used as normal, with tables on it
to provide for customers. And so the dance floor space is cleaned
like the rest of the bar floor. Sometimes these floors get polished,
leaving it very slippery for us to dance on. This for dancers is a
huge health and safety risk. Because if we slip and hurt ourselves.
That is the end of the show! With in the agency that we work for, we
are the only dance group. The rest of the clientèle are live singers
and tribute acts. So a polished floor is only a problem for the
dancers, making us look like pre Madonna’s.
Now onto our ethical welfare. Like I've
said sometimes we had really good changing areas, sometimes we had
really bad changing areas. The worst was when the venue didn't care
what was going on with us. So they allowed men just to be able to
walk into our changing area to try and talk to us. This was very
unfair as we were very unclothes with our costumes on, let alone
changing into the next one. So this was often an issue for us where
we would get angry at the man and tell the workers of the bar or
hotel to stop them coming round. But this was always very difficult
to do this mid performance as we had little time to take a sip of
water let alone notify someone. We had one venue where it had a large
open window that backed onto a car park. During a show we saw that
there was a big group of lads outside with their telephones out
filming us changing. This was very upsetting as we had no choice but
to keep changing as we were not able to just stop in the middle of
the show. Luckily we were able to tell the owner and he quickly
blocked the window with a board and ran after the boys outside. So
it's not always the fault of the venue. It just happened to
occasionally be very unfortunate.
Each act was given a car to travel to
the venues. One day driving along, suddenly the window fell down into
the door, like the window had just open it's self and then refused to
go back up. So we were stuck with no window in the front passenger
side. We notified the agency, who did nothing about it as it didn't
stop the car from working. The light that lights up the dials behind
the steering wheel had also blown. This meant when we were driving at
night we could not see how fast we were going. This is very
dangerous! Because not only could you be breaking the speed limit and
get points on your licence, you could be putting the lives of others
in danger and not even realise! Again the agency was notified about
this. Of course nothing was done about it because it didn't stop the
car working and getting us from A to B. Months passes and we came in
to October when the rain started to come. Only then was the front
window fixed as the rain was poring into the car, as the little times
it does rain in Cyprus, It's a lot more than a little light shower!
The car was filled with little puddles. So that late afternoon the
car was taken away and the window was 'fixed' however we were not
aloud to open the window as it had only been stuck in place, rather
than getting the window mechanism to work. Unfortunately the light in
the car has still not been fixed, showing that the company was only
interested in paying for things that they had to, rather than looking
out for the welfare of their clients.
With all these issues, things are
looked at differently in Cyprus. The health and safety rules are not
looked at as seriously as they are in the UK. Cypriots also have a
very relaxed outlook on life. If they say something will be done
tomorrow you will be lucky if it has been done by the end of the
week. The saddest thing of all is: if you don't like it, there are
always one hundred other girls that the agency could give your job to.
