Collective bargaining to entrench film rights

The Alliance committee of technicians believes that too many film producers are seeking to cut conditions for crew as a condition for new productions. The committee met this morning as part of the Alliance Federal Council.

Production was intially boosted by the Federal Government’s producer rebate, which rebates 40 per cent of the cost of Australian films. Now, the impact of the financial crisis has meant that access to capital coupled with the rise of the Australian dollar has meant that putting together funds for production is much harder.

Unfortunately, too many producers are responding to this by seeking to cut the costs of employing Australian crew by targeting things like night penalties, travel allowances and overtime.  This means that the lowest paid in the sector have to bear the brunt of the adjustment.

The commitee has decided to use the new collective bargaining rights in the Fair Work Act to seek to entrench employment rights so that all producers will will have to work on a level playing field and crew will know in advance what fair pay and conditions would be.