You may or may not be aware that BECTU has agreements with PACT, the producers’ alliance, which is an umbrella organisation representing about 350 UK independent production companies.
There are two separate agreements, the Major Motion Picture Agreement, which covers Feature Films with a budget of more than £30m, and the TV Drama Agreement.
The documents came into force at the end of 2017 and are agreed sets of terms and conditions covering aspects of working in larger budget films and TV dramas in the UK, which production companies who are members of PACT are expected to adhere to.
Whilst not perfect, they have been instrumental in ending a number of practices damaging to our workforce, such as buyouts, whereby productions can ask a crew member to work unlimited unpaid overtime. They also stipulated that productions had to issue deal memos before engaging workers, so crew understand the terms of their engagement before it starts.
The agreements are predominantly geared towards shooting crew, but our branch members have seen improvements in their working lives as a result of their implementation. There is scope in the future for separate agreements covering non-shooting crew, and this is something we continue to push for.
The agreements contain a commitment from both parties to revisit them one year after their initiation, with further negotiations every two years thereafter, to update and amend.
The MMPA (which generally contains more favourable terms than the TV drama agreement) has been revisited and tweaked slightly, mainly dealing with points of clarification.
The PACT/BECTU TV Drama Agreement was scheduled to be reviewed in 2019, but this has never happened.
Although well overdue, communication channels regarding the TV Drama agreement are now re-open; however the response from PACT to BECTU’s initial set of negotiations was nothing short of hostile (please see below for the communications in full)
Letter from BECTU to PACT dated 24/5/21
Letter from PACT to BECTU dated 22/6/21
Letter from BECTU to PACT dated 24/6/21
Over the last two years PACT have released their own guidance on how to interpret the agreement, and have also released their own, lower, rate cards and taken the strategy of trying to negotiate separately with individual branches as a means to divide and conquer. Productions have inevitably now been adopting the less favourable PACT terms and rate cards.
BECTU believes that PACT’s responses are in direct contradiction to the spirit of the agreement, and have given them a deadline of September 1st to enter into a meaningful exchange regarding the initial set of terms that BECTU submitted for negotiation.
Action to be taken after this deadline is not confirmed, but PACT are fully aware that the agreement is at a crossroads, and it is their response that will determine its future.
Above all else, PACT desires stability within the UK industry. This was the driving force behind establishing the agreement in 2017, and why it’s very much in their best interests to engage with BECTU in a productive fashion.
It is imperative that PACT are made aware that the professionals working in the UK industry are fully engaged with this issue; they’re currently advising their members that negotiations are ongoing and are being made in good faith; which is not the case. The more noise that PACT become aware of, the better our position.
Please help us by spreading awareness, and if you’re not yet a member please consider joining BECTU to strengthen our hand. Quote “TV Drama” on your application form to receive a 12 month deal of £7.50 pcm.