Seeking Voluntary Administrative Assistant

All the information I needed to make a comment is in the original post: I don't need to research into the company. The salient points are there: it is a talent and casting agency; it provides services to "professional artists", etc; and it sets out the key duties that indicate that the Agency is employing someone to perform a certain set of functions. And if it is utilising someone's labour in an effort to make a profit - it is a business - it has an obligation to pay for that labour. The principle is clear. Say I decide to run a coffee shop. It costs me a bomb for the lease and to set it up. I am a one-man operation (because my wife left me years ago - not me personally, the person running this coffee shop). I am run off my feet, I really need someone to wait at the tables, but I don't have enough to pay someone wages and the on-costs involved (superannuation, health and safety insurance, etc.). Do you really think that very small businesses around the country that similarly run "on an oily rag" with very low margins and profits should be able to employee "volunteers" and not pay them? OK. That's the issue at the business level. Let's look at the bigger picture. If a whole bunch of small businesses around the country start employing "volunteers" and not paying them - let's stick with coffee shops - what effect is that going to have on the employment of wait staff? One of the primary effects will be to push down the wages for wait staff who need the employment, and it would impact on the kitchen staff, etc., and bring a whole bunch of negative effects on the hospitality industry. And, cutting off one area of work that actors rely on for income to support their spasmodic professional gigs. There are a whole bunch of small business people who are really nice people, but absolutely rotten employers who have no clue about the rights of individual workers or their responsibilities as employers, and they are a blight on their respective industries. What this person needs is not free labour, but a partner who will buy into the business and roll up their sleeves to do the work indicated. Alternatively, because, as you say, the agency is now "trying to diversify in order to earn some bucks", diversification should be put off until the business becomes more viable. What about another perspective: let's say I am a young struggling actor (I'm actually an old fart, but never mind) and I approach ACTA for representation. Let's say, too, that they charge 10% for each paid role. I am broke, and struggling. I have maxed out on all my cards. Will Mr Saddington put me on his books for nothing? Will he spend as much energy on promoting me as he does the artists who sign up on 10%? Let's say that he is really a kind soul, and signs me up for free (no commission - he can't charge a sign-up fee legally, anyway). What does he do when the next broke actor turns up? And the next? And what happens if the word gets around? He will lose credibility in the industry. He will go broke himself. If someone is prepared to work for nothing, there are a whole bunch of organisations in service areas assisting people in need that desperately need people with the skills necessary to perform the work indicated. Or, dare I say it, amateur theatre companies that run on the smell of an oily rag. Jim