UK TV Drama Agreement: Negotiations Between Broadcasting Union Bectu And Producer Trade Body Pact Collapse Over Working Conditions
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: A rift with shades of last year’s IATSE/AMPTP conflict has broken out between UK broadcasting union Bectu and producer trade body Pact, after negotiations collapsed over a drama agreement that governs working conditions.Deadline can reveal that Bectu has served Pact with a notice to terminate the Bectu/Pact TV Drama Agreement in six months’ time if demands over certain sticking points aren’t met.
The union has informed members in the last hour.The pair have been negotiating since the Autumn over terms that were first forged in 2017 and set out best practice for Pact’s drama company member base in areas such as base rates of pay, hours, travel expenses and dealing with complaints.Both parties have said they are willing to return to the negotiating table over the coming months but, if no agreement is struck, drama production companies will be free to set their own terms from September 1 onwards.Deadline understands sticking points have arisen in areas such as the maximum number of working hours per day during filming and “prep and wrap,” the amount of time spent preparing for a shoot and dismantling a set.While Bectu wants the learnings from the Covid pandemic around mental health and wellbeing to be applied to the formal agreement, Pact is concerned in some instances over the additional cost to its member base.In a letter to Bectu responding to its decision to terminate the agreement, Pact Senior Business Affairs Executive Conrad Mewton said “there has been a fixation on high-end TV series for US SVoD platforms” during the negotiations, when the agreement needs to cover all types of drama including lower-budget shows such as children’s and nations and regions.Mewton said Pact had agreed to Bectu’s position or
Read more on deadline.com