INDUSTRY NEWS

The results are in:

98% of BECTU members voted to reject PACT's offer.

This will mean that PACT and representatives from all the crew departments will sit round the table again to clarify and amend some of the points in the offer. 

• Link to Art Department Branch meeting - 25th July 8pm

• PACT's July 11th offer with response from Art Department and other branches

• PACT has encouraged production companies to send out letter to crew members. This is BECTU's repsponse.

• How to vote - BECTU members will be sent a link to the ballot by email. If you have not received your ballot link, email TVDrama@bectu.org.uk

• Link to Join BECTU (put TVDRAMA22 in job title field, with your job title, for the discount that will be applied manually after you sign up)

• Deadline for voting in the ballot: Sunday 31st July

This is the full offer from Pact with the responses in red from the some of the BECTU branches.

The Ballot is now open, but you have until the 31st July to vote.

Come along to the Art Dept Meeting on the 25th July if you have any questions. Details in posts below. 

25th July

Art Department Branch Meeting on TV Drama Ballot

For members AND non members

Time:    July 25th, 2022 08:00 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85014045148

Meeting ID: 850 1404 5148

Find your local number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kdWPm28JP7

20th & 21st July

General BECTU meeting on TV Drama Ballot

For BECTU members

https://prospect-org-uk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DhMpMTvDTX-laRN9dliwbw

There are some important changes coming to crew contracts. Your contracts are dictated by a set of agreements between PACT and BECTU. The TV Drama agreement is currently being renegotiated, and the outcome will directly effect the hours you do, the pay your receive, and how the productions you work on are scheduled. 

The current agreement is set to expire on the 1st September and negotiations on new terms have been running for many months between PACT (representing producers and production companies) and BECTU crew members (representing their branches).

If we can't agree terms, the producers will be free to set their own terms in our contracts from September.

Ballot on the PACT offer

For this reason, it's of utmost importance that all crew members vote in an upcoming ballot. The ballot will be on new terms that PACT has put forward. The Art Department, Props and all other branches believe that PACT's proposal lacks clarity and has loopholes, allowing productions to avoid overtime payments and to schedule long hours.

4 Red Lines for Art Department and Props Branches

Most importantly, the offer does not meet the 4 red lines that the Art Department and Props branches has been fighting for on behalf of members. 

Our 4 red lines are:

___Shorter working day: 9+1 hours working day

___No prep and wrap

___Paid bank holidays (T2 if worked, T1 if not worked)

___6th day paid at 1.5T for ALL crew

Art Department Meeting

The Art Department Branch will be holding a meeting on the 25th July for all members and non members. Please come along for more information on the ballot. We believe members should reject PACT’s offer as it continues to promote unnecessarily long hours and lack of fair pay for overtime.

In order to get better terms for Art Department, we need ALL Art Department crew to vote. We will let you know if Props organises a similar meeting. 

Discount for joining BECTU

To vote, you will need to be a member of Bectu. You can currently join BECTU at a discount. (£7.50 per month). To get this discounted rate, please enter ‘TVDrama22’ in the job title field, with your job title, when you join online.

Important dates:

Wednesday 20th July - Ballot on PACT's offer for the TV Drama Agreement opens. (You have 10 days to vote). BECTU recommends a NO vote. (See below for details)

Wednesday 20th & 21st July - BECTU info zooms for all branches at 7.30pm

Monday 25th July - BECTU Art Department Branch meeting for Members and Non-Members to discuss the ballot and to recommend voting NO to the PACT offer

Friday 29th July - Ballot closes for votes.

Which roles get the most Job Alerts? It varies from month to month, and year to year! But we can tell you who has been most in demand from January to June 2022. 

See below for some pie charts. There are some roles that get very few Job Alerts, but that doesn't mean you're not in demand. If there aren't a huge number of crew listed on the directories for those roles, then employers don't need to post a Job Alert as it's easier for them to contact you directly to find out your availability. 

We'll keep on encouraging HoDs to send out Job Alerts, as it opens up the departments to greater diversity in all areas!

Art Department - Job Alerts by role for January to June 2022

Set Decoration - Job Alerts by role for January to June 2022

2021 was a record breaking year for the UK film and TV industry. We've got the numbers in for Job Alerts for Jan - June 2022 now, so we've done a comparison with the same months in 2021.

There's no doubt that it's still busy, but it has calmed down a lot since last year. There was a huge skills shortage in 2021 and it put pressure on everyone, so it's a relief to see that there's a bit more breathing space. Added to that, more productions have been going abroad this year. 

You can see the comparison of Job Alerts from Jan-June 2021 and 2022 below: 

The BFI has published a Skills Review for 2022. The focus is the record spending on productions in 2021, compared to previous years, and the resulting skills shortage. 

In 2017, £3.45 billion was spent on film and HETV productions. This saw a 63% increase to £5.64 billion in 2021. 

The report talks about the need for more training in the industry and more funding from production companies to enable this. 

The full report can be read here. 

We have some new items listed on our Prop Sales page on the Set Decoration members section. (Viewable by Set Decoration members only)

You can now reserve the items directly from the page, but please do check the details on the listing before reserving. 

If your production is having a Prop Sale and you would like to list some items, please get in touch. 

We are running a webinar, in collaboration with Talking Point Film, for New to the Industry members who are interested in working in the Props Department.

Starting out in the Props Department
in Film and TV

Thursday 10th February 20:00 - 21:30 via Zoom

You can find full details of the webinar here.

Please register soon if you would like to attend as spaces are running out fast!