You should be able to submit questions here

Something to discuss this evening is the communications that have taken place today from PACT/Producers to crew directly for jobs after September 1st asking crew ot ignore BECTu's advice to reject

The Streamers always say that they follow the local agreements

Rejection of this offer doesn't mean we can't negotiate further, but we need PACT to get much closer to our conditions - we have a set of new T&Cs that set out a better work life balance for crew

AS Chris says…Of course want an Agreement too BUT getting them to go into proper detail is what we want… and not just push out a set of bullet points that are way too vague! And there needs to be proper revision of the rest of 2017 agreement - which was ALWAYS going to have to happen

PACT are falsely saying that their offer is the culmination of negotiations. It is at worst an out of the blue ultimatum, at best a next step position. We now put a counter offer rather than roll over and play dead.

Although non members can't vote, it would be useful if members can help non members to understand the reasons for rejection of this ‘offer’, and help them see that PACT are worried - hence the letters!

And that is what the branches voted for Tim, to officially present PACt with our Terms on the event of a ‘reject’ vote from Members

The guidance actually Broke the agreement.

It would be good to know exactly what the BECTU response currently is to each headline point from PACT.

EG the offer to pay 2T for bank holidays, they will just run the working week from tuesday to saturday and avoid the bank holiday payment

each Branch has produced response to PACTs offer line by line

What is important to remeber with outr

Gavin, YHM

If they don't work to BECTU terms then turn away. No Crew + No Shoot. That will bring them crawling back to us.

what is vital to remember with out proposal, despite it being rubbished by PACT as being unrealistic, is that for any production running an 0800-1900 day, there will be NO increase in cost. This is only about work life balance

and about recognising all work is work

the wording on prep & wrap for the ‘technical' departments is unnacceptable and open to exploitation. no unpaid work

PACT have slipped Script Supervisors on the list - they want to come off that list!!

We are asking for Art department and script supervisors to be removed from P&W list from PACT

work is work, loading a van is work, packing equipment away is work

Note also that they do say in their offer that it is ‘off-camera work’ - it's still work though!

we have put out our annotated version of the PACT proposal - point by point … it is a coordinated view from Costume, HMU, LOcs, ADs, Props, Art, Production

As have camera and sound - see Instagram and other social media

band info has been omitted rom many deal memos for some time now

The change of bands proposed is an attempt to downgrade rates.

As have post-production, see the Rough Assembly website

I cant count how many times an LP has said: ‘ we are low band 2' like that is its own band

can we also abolish the term along with 30/30 “aggregated 60 mins or 60/30”?! it should be forbidden.

They have let it be known that the rates they want are as low as 60% of what we are getting now, and they will want our rate cards withdrawn to stop us telling the truth to our members. what is the point of a union that does not negotiate the actual pay of its members.

Erin prep and wrap is gone in our proposed terms and conditions - work is work whether or not it takes place before or after shooting hours, and should be paid at the appropriate rate.

To be honest if the worst exploiters go elsewhere, the industry will be thereby improved! And wherever they go, local technicians will fight these poor conditions.

Erin - P&W was at the top of the Negotiations as everything else was linked to solving it. The aim is all hours worked are recognised and paid.

We will always be a bargain compared with the US.

Streamers and studios have made huge investments here and they won't write that off easily

but the wording itself as per the anonymous comment just made still sounds grey?

that's my worry of how some producers may interpret the wording itself

Not sure which anonymous comment you mean?

Erin - those grey areas are why we have asked members to reject the proposal - there are too many grey areas.

Having just done 5 weeks of shooting on what was 6 day working weeks on splits and all standard working days... I feel any after wrap work that extends after midnight, because camera wrap was at 00.00am, should be be assessed and charged at a higher rate too or abolished completely. Is this issue being addressed?

Yes as Claire says we want clarity and that’s what we want from PACT -

@charlotte i refer you to the Q&A tab which has a comment referring to the wording of it.

Sorry I cant see that comment in the Q&A ..

Aisha yes. This is addressed in our proposed terms and conditions .

Erin only hosts and panelist’s can see the q and A - attending reps cannot sorry

Their statement on ‘customary’ preparation opens the back door to prep and wrap again, and cannot be acceptable

Exactly Paula!!

The term P&W should not be used. We should be paid for every hour we are required to work.

Absolutely Chris - another vague grey statement.

well said Paula

we seek no interpretation or wiggle room for the whole agreement because that has been the issue - the word Customary should be banned from all clauses! WE hate the words prep and wrap and want to end it and have said this to PACT

🙌

There has been a HUGE amount of work done by the workshop/workroom crew along with BECTU

Before we reach the end of this webinar, could we please outline to members the next steps. Namely that at a reps meeting the other night, Reps voted in favour of officially issuing PACT with our terms so that they can ballot their members with put proposal, as they asked us to do with members re: their proposal. It is very important for members to realise that that is what is happening next in this process

PACT have a habit of deliberately keeping language vague in their proposals - we have been trying to get the detail pinned down so there can be no misinterpretation - this has led in the past to disputes between crew and production - this is damaging and destructive and clarity is needed so we can all get on with the job we love!

Spencer, we actually have a much clearer action to take that branch reps voted in favour of, please can weexplain to members what the reps voted for at the recent meeting?

What happens if the current ballot says to accept PACTs offer?

we do still have to finalise the BECTU T&Cs

Gavin change your settings to everyone via blue button so entire audience can see your comments.

The negotiating team (across branches) has spent a huge amount of time putting together T7C’s that are watertight and protect the work/life balance. It feels like PACT have put this together in a very adhock and lazy way. We should be putting our T&C’s forward and use this as the basis for any new agreement.

can we talk about the letters that PACT have been sendinf ]

out drectly to crew today?

Have officials seen them?

Yes we should - It felt like a desperate measure….

Various groups are using social media already to warn others in their grades of companies who are offering poor rates, terms and conditions, eg not paying travel and so on - this should continue and expand.

we talked about the letters at the start of the meeting - we do need a strategy of a response

Is there a threshold for membership turn out in order for a vote to be carried

We have seen the 'trust me, I'm from PACT' letters, yes

Word of mouth is the best way to convince others, well said Andy

Is it the case that we are voting YES to reject the offer?

That Is correct

YES to reject the offer! Correct!

Grainne yes that is our current position

i think it is worth addressing the omissions in this letter compared to the official offer, namely, Consecutive missing in their letter re: 6th days and the omission of the term ‘shooting’ from the letter

Be assured everyone that all branches want to stick together - stronger branches supporting the weaker branches.

Record numbers joining now that the Bectu position is firm and committed to a better work life balance embodied in a watertight agreement.

Yes Chris, and also down to the hard work for he entire negotiating team over the last 12 months. Everyone involved has been committed and brought the branches together. It’s been amazing to see.

There is so much work going on and more coming. We crew continue to be in a strong position and productions struggle to fill in gaps in crew. And Producers bluffs are going to become even more apparent while we all negotiate our contracts.

Thanks all! Stronger together!

Well said Gavin

Can we please confirm next steps to members, specifically that branches voted in favour of officially presenting PACT with our new terms in the event of a ‘reject' vote. Lets let members, and reps know that BECTU are going to make good on this democratic vote please.

different approaches, but this was voted through with a democratic majority

we have already voted on this position

Sorry bt you havemt dealy

https://bectu.org.uk/get-involved-in-the-union/work-to-live-campaign/

Exactly. It’s not about greed or putting Productions over a barrell

‘barrel’! It’s about crew working in a mentally and physically healthy and sustainable way.

Production crew will also benefit hugely from reduction in working hours - they often don't get paid overtime and are in the office until all hours particularly on under resourced productions.

you havent dealt with the issue and the result of the vote. We voted that, in the event of a vote rejecting PACTS terms that we would officially present our new T’s & c's to PACT members for ballot by their members, please explain and clarify this to members

but we have not officially presented the terms as we voted to do

Once the 2017 agreement falls then the whole agreement is up for negotiation

Then lets hit the press with the fact that they wont ballo their members when thwy INSISTED that we ballot ours

Good point Darrell

A production shooting 0800-1900 monday-friday willl see no increase in cost as per our new terms

Spencer was that an official answer from PACT that they won't ballot on our terms?Can we use that in comms?

We do have to be careful what we put in PACTs hands.

Scripts and casting on time would help everyone

So can Bectu officially stand by the new T&C’s so we can make them more official. This will allow us to present them.

PACT dont seem to care, not sure why we should

PACT have constantly made this about money. It wont cost them anything extra if they do their jobs properly. Don’t go into production without scripts. Don’t expect crew to pick up the slack and go into OT.

It’s not about money. It’s about time management. And giving we crew our lives back outside of work.

We have not completed/ signed off the T&Cs doc as far as some branches are concerned - it cannot be presented yet in its current form

Producers are just greedy liars and they show this all the time. Whatever they can exploit they will.

We can also respond at Branch level to the letters.

SD This is why we need watertight clauses in any proposed agreement or terms and conditions, without ambiguity or prone to misinterpretation

A question to all members here - is the webinar useful and informative? Was it worth attending?

Well worth it imho

Well worth thanks Chris, reassured by the quality of the chat from the hosts and negotiators here that BECTU genuinely want to cut down hours and kill of unpaid time

Definitely CP

*kill off

we also want to support crew across all branches and support each other - UNITY is key here

Excellent webinar. We need to all encourage new members. Stringer together

*Stronger!

Yes, SD we can be string together! 🙂

Absolutely worth it! Thank you all for working so hard for us!

lots of string!!

Stranger Together...

Knot bad Charlotte!

!!

🤣

Thanks folks ✊

Thank you

Thanks all

thank you very much

Thanks to officials!

Cheers all!

Thank you!

Great Webinar - keep it up!