Talks between BECTU representatives and the producers’ alliance PACT regarding an update to the 2017 TV Drama agreement have reached an impasse. The terms of the agreement specify that if either side wishes to withdraw, it must give 6 months’ notice. BECTU informed PACT on March 1st of our wish to do so.
The Sticking Points
There has been broad agreement on a number of issues, some progress has been made. In particular PACT proposed that the standard working day (SWD) should from now on be 10+1 as opposed to the 11+1 the 2017 agreement makes provision for. However, this big step forward was offered up on a ‘take-it-leave-it’ basis, with no room for negotiation on a number of other issues.
Some of this stuff affects shooting crew more than it affects us in post-production, but BECTU is a democratic organisation, so if a majority of branches decide to pull out of the agreement, we abide by that decision and should do our utmost to support our colleagues who work on set.
Prep and wrap
This is the big one.
Current Situation:
The 2017 agreement was completely woolly on the whole subject. Clause 5.1.2 stated that ‘The Deal Memo will make clear the number of shooting hours and the number of prep and wrap hours (together, the “Contracted Hours”) included in the agreed daily rate.’ It didn’t specify what those P&W hours might be, or which departments were expected to do it. In a subsequent clarification, BECTU and PACT agreed the wording:
prep and wrap is “customary to that department and in accordance with current working practice.”
So, still completely woolly. Certain departments (costume, makeup, locations, ADs) have traditionally been on location to set up for the working day, and had to de-rig at the end of the day, and have given this labour away for free. Clearly this needs to change. Where other departments are required to do wraparound work, (say the props department are required to dress a set, or grips are required to prep a particularly elaborate setup) they are given a ‘precall’ or ‘derig’ and paid overtime at 1.5T.
BECTU Proposal:
As a gesture of good faith during negotiations, in the interest of moving forwards, BECTU proposed that all departments be given the same contracted hours but that the traditional prep and wrap departments have an additional 30 mins at each end of the day paid at flat rate.
PACT Proposal:
PACT proposed that certain departments are contracted for an hour longer each day (costume, make-up, locations, ADs, script supervisor, production, art department & VFX). (The inclusion of art department in this list is especially unjustified, seeing as they don’t do prep and wrap at the moment and the majority of workers in that department are not based on set or tied to shooting hours). This is not acceptable to our side, we believe that all departments should be contracted for the same length of day.
Overtime
Overtime is paid at 1.5T, but there is a floor (the minimum amount paid to a worker, which PACT proposed increasing to £35ph) and a cap (the maximum paid to any worker, which PACT proposed increasing to £55ph).
The proposed cap is too low. Overtime is meant to be costly to producers to disincentivize them adding unnecessarily to the working day, with all the implications this has for crew physical and mental health, lack of sleep, disruption to family life etc. This proposal means that some members of crew would be working OT for less than their standard hourly rate.
Bank Holidays
PACT proposed that bank holidays, if worked, would be paid at 2T.
BECTU agreed but also feel that bank holidays even if not worked should be paid at 1T. Everyone else in society gets a paid bank holiday. If bank hols are not paid, the suspicion is that schedules will just slip so that the working week moves to Tuesday to Saturday.
Definition of the SCWD
The 2017 agreement only clearly defined the SWD (10 or 11+1 but most often 11+1) and the CWD. However the producers reserved the right to schedule a SCWD in exceptional circumstances. In fact, the SCWD seems to have become the goto day schedule, because it gives the crew a break but runs less risk of getting into turnaround trouble (particularly for actors, Equity are very hot on their members having a full 11 hours off between shifts).
Crew and producers differ in what the definition of the SCWD should be. The CWD is 10 hours with an informal 20min break, so 9h40m work. BECTU believe the SCWD should be 10 hours plus a half-hour lunch break. PACT believe the SCWD to be 10.5 hours plus a half-hour lunch break (simply because this is half way between 10 and 11, completely disregarding the fact that the CWD is actually less than 10. The loss of ½ an hour of lunch break should be compensated at 2T, therefore worth an hour, giving 11-1=10hrs work).
Timetable
The agreement was supposed to be renegotiated every two years. PACT have proved reluctant to return to the table. To a certain extent this was due to the pandemic, but not wholly. For example it took nearly 5 months to arrange the first meeting between representatives last year. Clearly this is because we, the crew, have all the leverage at the moment. It’s incredibly busy out there and we therefore have more power in our negotiations. We believe PACT seek to delay any new agreement because terms are only ever going to improve for workers.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Both sides have stated that they wish to keep negotiating in the 6-month notice period, and it’s possible that we reach a settled position and a new agreement is published in that time.
Failing that, your PP&F branch representatives will need to gather a consensus from the branch to produce our own set of T&Cs and issue these as guidance to be used in individual negotiations going forward. Please feel free to start this ball rolling in the comments below.
There has never been a better time for employees in TV drama to strive for a more equitable and sustainable way of working.
March 2022