BECTU Rejects Pay Deal and Terminates Negotiations

 

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Talks have broken down between Pact and Bectu over crew rates for UK based Feature Films.

Here are both press releases issued from either side regarding the dissolution of the talks.

We at thecallsheet.co.uk support improved terms for all crew members, particuarly given the recent volume of investment into UK production and the long time stagnantion of rates. thecallsheet also supports the Living Wage and we do not post jobs that do not, at the very least, pay the Living Wage.

Press release from Pact, issued on the 30th April 2015

 

1289 BECTU Rejects Pay Deal and Terminates Negotiations

30/04/2015

A three and a half year negotiation between Pact and BECTU over pay rates and terms of employment in the feature film industry has resulted in the union walking away from the table.
 
The negotiations, which started in January 2012 and were facilitated by ACAS, aimed to reach a new collective agreement to give clarity to all those working in feature films in the UK - both in high-end feature films and lower budget indigenous productions – on pay rates and terms and conditions. The new deal would have benefited both union and non-union members.
 
Pact also hoped to achieve some stability in the film industry which would have helped attract and maintain inward investment to the UK. Pact is now very concerned that this decision by BECTU will drive film production away from the UK, as studios will be able to source cheaper labour and facilities from other countries
 
Pact Chief Executive, John McVay, said: “We are bitterly disappointed in this decision by BECTU to walk away from the negotiations. It is a tragedy that this is a short term position by the union with no consideration for long term sustainable film production in the UK. They have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory”.
 
End to negotiations
 
Despite Pact having persuaded film producers to guarantee the going rate for workers on high-end films, BECTU has rejected the deal outright giving no detail about which parts of the deal remain unacceptable. BECTU will now impose its own rate cards and terms and conditions.
 
BECTU did not even ballot its membership and Pact is concerned that this decision has been made by a very small number of people whose actions will impact on all members of the union and on both studio feature films and UK low-budget productions.
 
McVay added: “If members and non-members of BECTU are bullied, harassed and intimidated into accepting rates imposed without consultation, Pact will provide legal advice to employers to ensure that their employees do not suffer from that kind of behaviour”.

 

Press release from BECTU, issued on the 6th May 2015

BECTU has today issued a new ratecard covering work on feature films in the UK after talks with employer's body PACT on a new collective agreement broke down last month.

 

The union issued the following press release today, Wednesday 6 May 2015. 

1290 BECTU distributes new ratecard for film workers after break with PACT

BECTU has today issued a new ratecard covering work on film productions  in the UK.  

The rates, covering the majority of skillsets, will be applied by union members to all US and UK productions in receipt of UK tax breaks that get underway from 1 June 2015.

The information has been supplied to a number of production companies, including Warners, Universal, Disney and Paramount, together with a core terms and conditions document. Advance notice of this step was sent to the companies on 1 May with an invitation to the employers to engage with the union, either on a production or company-wide basis, to establish a formal pay and conditions agreement.

Failure to agree going rates

This critical development follows the failure of union negotiations with employers’ organisation PACT to agree a set of going rates to cover all film production from big to low budget. The talks had been underway for the last three and a half years.

BECTU notified PACT that it couldn’t agree with proposals to restrict going rates to US productions with budgets over £70m after a packed meeting of union representatives on 18 April took the decision.

For BECTU, acceptance of that cut-off would have left union members without any meaningful increase in pay to cover their work overall and without the required new framework for pay going forward.

For at least 12 years, with few but notable exceptions, no rates of pay have been agreed with PACT. Long-standing frustrations about the group’s mandate, both to negotiate and to enforce agreements reached with the union, characterised previous negotiations. Since 2003, BECTU has published a series of ratecards setting out recommended rates for specific categories.

The BFI’s figures for 2013 confirm that just seven US productions made in the UK that year had budgets exceeding £70m, underlining the limitations of PACT’s proposals.

'No point delaying the inevitable'

Writing to John McVay, chief executive of PACT, to advise of the union’s decision to withdraw from talks, Gerry Morrissey, BECTU general secretary, said: “We are all disappointed that we have reached this position but there is no point delaying the inevitable.”

Screen International reported John McVay’s statement on the union’s decision on 1 May: “We are bitterly disappointed in this decision by BECTU to walk away from the negotiations. It is a tragedy that this is a short term position by the union with no consideration for long term sustainable film production in the UK. They have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.”

Support for new collective agreement

In reply, BECTU argued that PACT was ‘scaremongering’ to deflect attention from the widespread and growing discontent amongst UK film workers about their terms and conditions.

During the course of negotiations with the employers, not only have existing BECTU branches, including Cameras, Grips, Lighting, Hair and Make-Up and Sound, seen membership growth but several new branches have formed to support and benefit from the hoped-for formal agreement.

Living Wage

Another red line for BECTU concerns the refusal of the PACT negotiating committee to accept that UK workers should, as a minimum, be paid the Living Wage. BECTU’s 2014 survey amongst runners showed that no pay, or pay just consistent with the National Minimum Wage, continued to dog the working lives of vulnerable new entrants, and this despite the ability of production companies to pay their staff.

Commenting further, Gerry Morrissey said: “Production companies have benefitted from millions of pounds of tax breaks in this country, and some actors get paid millions of pounds, but those companies have given little back to their workforces.”

Looking ahead

Looking ahead BECTU expects production companies to start talks with the union about forthcoming productions; failure to do so is likely to mean members refusing to work on the terms outside the new published ratecard.

Gerry Morrissey concluded: “We believe a collective agreement on pay and conditions, including recognition of the Living Wage, is in the best interests of all parties. BECTU is ready to meet the companies; the ball is now firmly in their court. The choice is simple: a fair and transparent system understood by all, or uncertainty and conflict.”

ENDS

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