International Insider: Pact Vs Bectu; Netflix India; Boutonnat Controversy; Euro Heatwave
deadline.comGood afternoon Insiders, Max Goldbart here. We’ve got all the news and analysis you need as we end another week in which temperatures hit record highs and relations between the UK’s biggest TV union and trade body hit dispiriting lows.Verbal warfare: Rumbling along in the UK TV drama sector has been a dispute that broke into all out verbal warfare this week over the Bectu/Pact TV drama agreement.
The union Bectu is seeking updated terms to the agreement in areas such as working conditions, hours and wellbeing but trade body Pact believes Bectu’s terms are unrealistic, and has set out its own terms that Bectu members are balloting on as we speak.
Crew members have been advised by the union to reject these terms and the whole situation has become extremely messy. In a set of ever-ramped-up statements issued to the press, Bectu said Pact’s terms did not address the “long hours and wellbeing crisis our members are facing” while Pact claimed Bectu’s proposals risk “the whole of scripted TV being damaged,” and there will be no agreement if the trade body’s compromise isn’t accepted.
In an unprecedented move that may shift the debate, a group of heavily influential indies including Banijay, Bad Wolf and Normal People producer Element Pictures sent a letter to all crew yesterday afternoon urging them to accept Pact’s terms.
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