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  Issue No 55 Official Organ of LaborNet 26 May 2000  

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The Soapbox

Toni Scanlon on Reith's Third Wave


The Water Rats star and MEAA member outlines how Reith's move to ban industry-wide bargaining will harm actors.

 
 

I would like to explain how Mr Reith's proposed changes to the Workplace Relations Act to prevent so-called "pattern bargaining" will affect me and all my peers working in film, television, radio, live theatre, commercials and those doing corporate gigs, working in nightclubs and RSL clubs.

I work predominantly in film, television and live theatre. Every time I am lucky enough to secure a job, I know in advance what the terms and conditions will be. All my agent really needs to negotiate is whether I can earn above the minimum rate of pay or not.

Why do I have an agent? Because the kind of work I do can range from a four hour job recording a voice-over for a commercial, to a role on a feature film where I will have continuous employment for maybe six weeks, to a role in a television series where my job might be for two days to a role in a stage play where I might be continuously employed for eight weeks. For producers to find me and for me to find out what work is on offer, the producers need ideally for me to have an agent. That makes me easy to find if they are interested in me. It makes it easier for my name to be suggested for any forthcoming work for which I might be suitable.

Back to the conditions of my employment. As I said, I work mainly on feature films, in television series and in plays. Each of those kinds of work is covered by an enterprise agreement. There is a template agreement negotiated between the union and the employer organization. Each individual employer then signs up to the enterprise agreement.

So I know in advance that whether I get a role on Water Rats, or Murder Call or Grass Roots or Home and Away, I will be entitled to a lunch break after five hours. I will be entitled to overtime after eight hours work. I will be entitled to have somewhere to change into my costume that is private and not let's say on the sand at Palm Beach in front of the gazing eyes of British tourists visiting the Peninsula to look at the sand of Summer Bay.

My agent does not have to negotiate these terms and conditions for each and every job, every time I am offered a job that might say last one day.

If my agent or I had to negotiate those terms and conditions each and every time I work, the negotiations would take longer than the employment on offer. It could not work for me. It will not work for the employer either.

The current arrangements offer certainty to employers and employees. They most certainly offer efficiency for employers. If an employer had to negotiate every term and condition with every actor and every technician on every production, they would need considerably more production staff and considerably longer to set up their productions.

A television commercial typically takes between four hours and three days to film. Typically, the production company will have a week or less to organise it - find the locations or book the studios, hire all the technicians, cast the right actors and negotiate everyone's contract. Depending on the size of the commercial, that could be contracts for between twenty and a hundred and twenty people. To do this efficiently, they rely on knowing what are unarguably accepted terms and conditions. All that needs discussing is money, and when and where the cast and technicians need to work.

The proposed changes to prevent pattern bargaining will paralyse the industries in which I work.

It would be ironic that a Government which in its latest Budget restated its commitment to a buoyant film and television industry with continued financial support and committed itself to a massive increase in funding to Australia's major performing arts companies of $43.3 million over four years should see this resolve aimed at supporting dynamic, efficient and productive companies undermined by these proposed changes.


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*    Visit the ACTU Third Wave campaign page

*   View entire issue - print all of the articles!

*   Issue 55 contents

In this issue
Features
*  Interview: The University of Rupert
National Tertiary Education Union president Dr Carolyn Allport on News Corp's move into tertiary education and the Universitas 21 experiment.
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*  International: The Unionist Who Sparked a Coup
Workers Online's Fiji expert Andrew Casey profiles one of the men at the centre of the crisis, detained PM Mahendra Chaudry
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*  Unions: The Call to Action
The Australian Services Union is leading the push into the call centre industry. But winning these new workplaces is a major challenge.
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*  Politics: Workplace Gladiators
Peter Reith as Russell Crowe? That's the image Labor IR spokesman Arch Bevis conjured up in a frecent address to the Industrial Relations Society.
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*  History: How to be a Good Unionist
It's 1917, WWI rages and federal public servants are given these rules on how to dischare their responsibility as members.
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*  Legal: The Price of Solidarity
Intimidation, threats and even murder still await many workers who attempt to organize in a number of countries around the world, says a new ILO report.
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*  Review: Inconvenient History
In may be cold comfort to Republicans, but the vote for Federation was every bit as tempestuous as this collection of articles shows.
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*  Satire: World Bank Caves In
In a victory for Seattle protestors, international monetarists have decreed that global utopia to begin immediately.
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News
»  Fiji Faces International Union Blockade
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»  Workers Return to Dump Reith's Third Wave
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»  Budget Raises More Questions than Answers
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»  Teachers Finally Achieve Satisfaction
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»  FairWear Campaign Targets Uniforms
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»  Rio Tinto Appeals for Industrial Peace
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»  Beer Hike Sparks Worker Concerns
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»  Libs Fail to Block Family Friendly Laws
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»  No Joy For 'Back Door' Pete
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»  Angry Truckies Converge on Border
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»  Unions Dues Test Case Looms
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»  Why Solidarity Messages Mean Something
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»  Radio Free East Timor Rocks
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Columns
»  The Soapbox
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»  Sport
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»  Trades Hall
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»  Tool Shed
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Letters to the editor
»  Neale's Spot On!
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»  Silence on the GST
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