[UK TV Freelancers] Freelancing - recent developments
- From: info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- To: "'UK TV Freelancers updates mailing list'" <uktvfreelancers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 02:05:59 +0100
Dear TV Freelancer,
We'd like to remind you of some of the key developments to emerge from TV
Freelancers' and TV Wrap's campaign over the last few months - developments
which have changed the landscape, as far as freelance working in TV is
concerned.
Holiday pay:
In June, PACT issued new guidelines to its member companies, according to
Broadcast, stating that "any description of payment should be written into
contracts as net of holiday pay". This represents a major step forward on
the issue of holiday pay - one of the key problems you've been telling us
about over the last few years. It means that the rate you agree at interview
should appear in your contract WITHOUT holiday pay being deducted. It also,
however, means that you should be quite clear about this at interview, and
that you should make sure, if you can, that you get a contract before you
start work. If your contract arrives with a lower figure in it, don't accept
it; and you can now use PACT's own statement to back up your claim.
Unpaid work experience:
We are told by TV Wrap that the DTI has now begun preliminary research into
employment practices in the TV industry, which depending on their findings,
may be followed by a full-scale investigation. In an even more unprecedented
move, after an approach from TV Wrap, a Granada production has not only
begun paying previously unpaid work experience staff, but has
retrospectively gone back and paid due wages to workers who had already done
the job unpaid.
PACT has revised its guidelines for employers offering work experience - and
has promised to introduce a register of companies who have committed to
using this agreement. Only companies on this register will be eligible for
certain training funds. A key new recommendation is that the employer sits
down with a worker to produce an agreement as to the training benefits they
will receive, and then again at the end of the placement to assess how it
has been delivered. There are other guidelines as well. If you are doing
unpaid work experience for a PACT company which does not keep to these
criteria, you should let both us and PACT know about it. You can find the
agreement on PACT's website here:
http://www.pact.co.uk/uploads/file_bank/81.pdf
Which is good as far as it goes; but may not actually be far enough. Thanks
to the work of TV WRAP, it is now far more widely accepted that most unpaid
work experience is actually illegal under minimum wage laws, unless it
conforms to very narrow criteria - effectively, unless it is either part of
an accredited training scheme, or the worker is simply 'shadowing' - in
other words is free to come and go as they like, and is not asked to carry
out specific tasks.
The government's response to the TV Wrap petition confirms this. It says
(amongst other things): "If someone has a contract of employment they are a
worker. Even if they do not have a contract of employment, they are a worker
if they are doing work personally for someone else (under a worker's
contract) and are not genuinely self-employed. The contract does not need to
be written; it may be an implied contract or an oral contract. People such
as home workers, agency workers casual labourers, part time workers and
workers on short-term contracts are all entitled to the minimum wage." This
interpretation of the law, which has been confirmed in discussion with the
DTI, should force a complete re-evaluation of the way employers offer
short-term unpaid work experience - and will mean that, by PACT's own
admission, even companies following the PACT work experience guidelines
could be falling foul of the law. The challenge for the industry now is to
come up with a new system which still offers valuable experience to industry
newcomers without breaking minimum wage legislation.
Working hours:
TV Wrap had protested about the fact that many TV workers are required to
sign 48-hour opt-out clauses in their contracts - and our own surveys had
shown small numbers of freelancers required to work hours that breach rest
regulations, even if the 48-hour opt-out has been signed. Once again the
government's response to the petition is unequivocal: "We condemn all
breaches of employment rights and further, it is against the law for
employers to force their employees to work for more than 48 hours a week on
average." PACT has promised to renegotiate the PACT/BECTU freelance
agreement with specific regard to factual and reality shows - the main area
where abuses were reported - and working hours will clearly need to figure
strongly in those negotiations.
More updates to come in a separate message - that should be enough to take
in for one day! - but please forward this message to any other freelancers
you should feel should be armed with these facts - and encourage them to
sign up to our mailing list via www.tvfreelancers.org.uk
<http://www.tvfreelancers.org.uk/> .
Very best wishes,
TV Freelancers
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