Personal Managers Association
Dear All,
Equity now have a deal in place with the BBC, which you will be aware of, should you have a client impacted. They should have a deal agreed with ITV and Lime Pictures in the coming days.
Discussions with PACT, however, are proving less productive at the moment and, as a lot of productions’ suspension periods are either coming to an end or in some cases have ended, this is a concern.
The PMA are now also in discussions with PACT directly and we have told PACT that we wholeheartedly support Equity’s stance that No interim payments should be an advance against contractual payments and that second call payments under T45 alone are a misuse of this clause in the current circumstances. We have also highlighted to them the risk their Producers run invoking that 2nd call clause as it would mean they’d lose their right to first call.
We have highlighted below in John’s email what we’d like to encourage everyone to work towards in order to avoid Equity having to do a production by production negotiation.
Copying correspondence from John Barclay below;
Following on from our many recent conversations in particular our call yesterday I thought we should detail the position we are in with PACT in relation to independent TV and film production.
Since productions began to be suspended due to Covid-19, Equity and PACT have been in negotiation regarding the force majeure clauses in the TV and film agreements to seek to find a compromise between the first call and second call provisions. Equity appreciates that retaining cast on first call over a long period of time is prohibitively expensive for productions (and so if used at all will only be used for lead cast members) and that second call is a very low payment which offers little benefit to artists at this time. Therefore we have been seeking to agree a temporary crisis payment for the duration of the suspension for the cast until such time that production can be resumed, this would be at a level between the first and second call provisions in the agreement which recognises this as a temporary crisis payment for the duration of the suspension for the cast until such time that production can be resumed.
a) PACT original position was a 2nd call payment of £105 per week and in addition the producer would pay 25% of the artists aggregate earnings with all fees paid as a recoupable advance against future payments once production is up and running at a date in the future.
b) Equity rejected this proposal and any idea that a fee should contain an element of recoupable advance against future earnings and tabled the proposal that should the producer wish to pay the artist a temporary crisis payment for the duration of the suspension for the cast until such time that production can be resumed, then they must pay not less than the minimum engagement fee of £557 per week , giving a monthly fee of £2228
c) Moving forward the producers have the following options available to them;
i ) they can retain any artist on the basis of 1st call in accordance with Clause (T45) of the Equity/PACT television Production Agreement or Clause (F38) of the Equity/PACT Cinema Films Agreement.
ii ) 2nd call in accordance with the aforementioned agreement.
iii ) terminate the artists contract in accordance with the aforementioned agreement, which of course we want to avoid and not encourage anyone to do.
iv ) the Producer can reach an agreement with Equity whereby the Producer will make a temporary crisis payment for the duration of the suspension for the cast until such time that production can be resumed, payment should be of not less than minimum engagement fee of £557 per week , giving a monthly fee of £2228 – this last option is the one we want to achieve across the board.
e) When our agent colleagues are approached by producers we urge them not accept the PACT proposal or any version of it and instead propose the monthly fee and insist they reach out to Equity.
In relation to productions made under the Pact/Equity Cinema Films Agreement (“CFA”), Equity is directing Producers to clause F8.4(ii)(b) of the CFA as a payment model for a temporary crisis payment. This clause caters for supplementary payments payable to an Artist in respect of each week that they are on First Call but are not required to work. This provision requires payment of twice the Artist’s negotiated Performance Salary subject to a maximum of £576, with applicable use fees payable in addition. Payments should apply on a weekly basis through the end of the suspension period (resumption of work on the Film) whereupon the Artist’s engagement shall be resumed. Agents are advised to report to Equity any productions seeking to retain Artists on a First Call basis.
regards and stay safe
John Barclay
Head of Film, TV, Radio and New Media-Equity
Needless to say this is just a minimum position we are trying to reach as the benchmark. None of this negates your individual rights to negotiate something beyond the above.
If anyone is getting pressure from a specific Producer/ production to accept either second call payments only or second call payments and an advance against future payment please get in touch with John Barclay ASAP so he can speak to those Producers.
Any questions let us know.
Thanks as ever,
Alice, Bill and Kate x