Cape Town Opera singers fired for ‘breach of contract’ on overseas tour

TWELVE “background” singers, contracted to the Cape Town Opera, have been fired after protesting over their wages while touring France and Scotland to perform in a version of Mozart’s famed opera Cosi fan Tutte.

And now their future with the Cape Town Opera remains unclear over their “breach of contract”.

Cape Town Opera spokesperson Lesley Liddle says the “ad-hoc” background singers were fired on August 18 while in France to perform the opera.

According to media reports, the 12 singers queried their wages after discovering that their French colleagues working alongside them were paid significantly more.

Liddle would not say how much the singers were being paid but said Cape Town Opera paid for their meals, flights and accommodation while performing in France at the Aix-en-Provence Festival earlier this month, and later at the Edinburgh Festival, which concluded on the weekend. She emphasised that the production of Cosi fan Tutte was initiated by, and belonged to, the Aix-en-Provence Festival. “The singers were staff members and ad-hoc singers on exclusive contract with Cape Town Opera and received payment by Cape Town Opera for, among others, their duties related to the Aix-enProvence Festival,” said Liddle.

When the singers discovered they were paid less than their French colleagues, and below the stipulated minimum wage of R23 602 a month they struck a separate deal with the organisers of the festival.

“Due to this, the singers were deemed to be in breach of contract with Cape Town Opera and a disciplinary process was enacted,” said Liddle.

She said the singers appointed their own legal representative to accompany and advise them on this matter.

“Cape Town Opera has a honour code (company policy) document which was drafted in consultation with our employees and instituted (in) early 2015, and this document is presented to each company member on appointment. On two occasions, during the mediation process, the singers were given an opportunity to rectify the charges against them. However, they opted not to,” said Liddle.

An independent chairperson subsequently found the singers failed to follow lawful protocol within their contracts of employment with Cape Town Opera, and they have since been fired.

The singers were initially suspended, and then dismissed.

Liddle said the Cape Town Opera has never experienced any labour dispute since it started touring in 2005.

The Cape Times could not get comment from the singers because they were travelling back to South Africa yesterday.