Screen Industry Workers Act

A Starter's Guide to the Screen Industry Workers Act

What is the Screen Industry Workers Act?

The Screen Industry Workers Act (SIWA) provides a new model, developed by industry and supported by Government, creating mandatory terms in all contracts and allowing screen industry contractors to bargain collectively. The Act came into force on 30 December 2022.

SIWA is designed to restore the right of screen workers to collectively bargain, and to establish enforceable contracts with mandatory terms. SIWA's four main points:

• Enables collective bargaining for occupational groups within the screen industry
• Does not set minimum fees or working conditions. Those will be set at the collective bargaining stage
• Created mandatory terms that apply to all contracts from 30 December 2022
• Covers screen productions in Aotearoa New Zealand, including films, television series and computer generated games

SIWA is for contractors in the screen industry only. Employees in the screen industry, carry on!

What Can SIWA do for Screenwriters?

SIWA brings screenwriters representatives, and producers representatives, to the table together to work out some basics (called Mandatory Terms or Minimums in the Act) that must go into every contract. These basics will be agreed and cannot be left out of any contract, so every writer will benefit from them.

These basics don't mean that everyone will get paid the same - writers can still negotiate their own terms based on experience and skill - what they do mean is that no writer will be offered payment or terms that fall below an agreed minimum. To offer less money or worse conditions would breach what has been agreed and would be unlawful.

In that way, the collective bargain is a safety net and protection for all writers - we are no longer individuals negotiating for ourselves, we are part of an occupational group (writers) who are entitled to agreed minimum payment and conditions.

We can negotiate upwards of this agreement, but we cannot negotiate below the mutually agreed minimum terms.

That is the power of collective bargaining. 'No writer left behind!'

Who does SIWA cover?

SIWA covers the following screen industry workers, they are called Occupational Groups in the Act:

Composer

• Individuals who create or modify musical compositions for screen productions

Director

• Individuals who direct the making of screen productions by visualising scripts while guiding performers and technicians to capture a screen production’s vision

Game Developer

• Individuals who work on, or contribute to, computer-generated games and who do not fall within the description of the composer, director, performer, or writer

Performer

• Individuals who portray roles in screen productions, including stunt persons, narrators, voice-over actors, extras, singers, musicians, and dancers

Technician (post-production)

• Individuals who work on, or contribute to, screen productions during the post-production phase, and who do not fall within the description of any other occupational group

Technician (production)

• Individuals who work on, or contribute to, screen productions before the post-production phase, and who do not fall within the description of any other occupational group

Writer

• Individuals who write, edit, contribute to, and evaluate scripts and stories for screen productions

What types of work does SIWA cover?

SIWA covers the following types of screen productions aka work:

• computer-generated games
• films
• programmes (one-offs, mini-series and TV series etc.)
• TV Commercials (shorter than 5 minutes in duration)

The Bill DOES NOT cover the following types of work:

• advertising programmes that are longer than 5 minutes in duration
• amateur productions
• game show
• live event
• music and dance
• news and current affairs
• recreation and leisure
• religious
• sports programmes
• talk show
• training and instructional
• variety shows

What is collective bargaining?

Collective bargaining is the process used to negotiate collective contracts. Collective contracts are contracts between occupational groups and engagers. In the screen industry engagers will be the Producers and Production Companies you normally work with; they will be represented by SPADA.

SIWA enables representative organisations to collectively bargain contracts on behalf of the occupational groups. For example, NZWG would collectively bargain / negotiate on behalf of the writers and SPADA would be negotiating on behalf of the Producers as the engager.

Under SIWA, these are the rules that govern Collective Bargaining:

• Good faith practice.
• Once bargaining begins, a collective contract must eventually result.
• Industrial action is not allowed.
• All collective contracts must contain certain Mandatory Terms (see below)

What types of contracts are in the act?

Under SIWA there are three different contract types covered by the Act. Depending on the type of work you are undertaking you will be on one of the following:

• Individual Contracts - Easy, contracts negotiated between an individual worker and their engager (e.g. a screenwriter and a producer). The terms of an individual contract must not be worse than the corresponding term in any relevant enterprise and occupational contract.
• Enterprise Collective Contracts - these contracts will cover one or more writers working on a specific production or with a production company. Negotiated by a worker organisation and an engager (e.g. NZWG and Made-Up Productions Ltd.).
• Occupational Collective Contracts - these contracts will cover all work done by an occupation group - that's you, writers! Negotiated by a worker organisation and an engager organisation (e.g. NZWG and Spada).

All three types of contracts must contain mandatory terms. These are terms that the engager cannot opt out of or negotiate below, they are:

• A term saying parties will comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act and Human Rights Act
• Bullying, discrimination, and harassment processes
• Dispute resolution processes
• Termination notice periods and payments

Both Enterprise and Occupational collective contracts need to include the following mandatory terms:

• Pay rates
• Breaks
• Public holidays
• Hours of work
• Availability for work
• Bullying, discrimination, and harassment processes
• Termination
• Dispute resolution processes

Once these have been successfully negotiated, collective contracts will set new minimum terms for the different occupations work in the industry. Meaning that pay rates in an occupational collective contract will become the new minimum pay rate for work done by writers. Producers and Production Companies and writers can still negotiate above the minimum terms set by collective contracts, and these will be through the individual contract process.

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What next?

Step one

Get involved with the guild or industry organisation that represents your primary occupation in the screen industry

Step two

Come along to a workshop, meet your fellow screenwriters, learn more about SIWA and how to get involved

Step three

Read the emails and communication sent out by NZWG, we will update you on progress and further steps!

Useful Links and resources

• ‍Collective bargaining in the screen industry
• ‍‍NZWG Submission on SIWB‍
• Screen Industry Workers Bill - History of progress through parliament‍
• Government Quick Guide to the Act‍
• Background on the creation of the Act

A Brief History

2010

Employment Relations (Film Production Work) Amendment Bill AKA The Hobbit Law

This legislation was passed overnight in 2010 by the National Government of the day. The reasons and rationale become clear over the next decade, unfortunately at the time it was a law that divided an industry.

You can read the following explanation by Helen Kelly, President of the NZ Council of Trade Unions in 2011.

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2018

Film Industry Working Group (FIWG) - Formed in January 2018

The Minister of Work Place Relations Iain Lees-Galloway formed the Film Industry Working Group (FIWG) working group consisting of screen industry representative (including NZWG), alongside the Council of Trade Unions and BusinessNZ.

The working group was formed to make recommendations on changes to the regulatory framework for film industry workers that will restore the rights of film production workers to collectively bargain.

You can find the following background on the history of the FIWG.

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2018

FIWG Recommendations - Delivered in October 2018

By October 2018, the FIWG had unanimously agreed on a set of recommendations that were presented to the Minister and government. These recommendations would then form the basis of drafting the new legislation to be called the Screen Industry Workers Bill. Between October 2018 and December 2019, a smaller subgroup of the original FIWG was called back into MBIE conversation and consultation to assist with the technicalities of drafting SIWB Legislation.

The smaller FIWG consisted of a Alice Shearman - Executive Director NZWG, Richard Fletcher - Co-President SPADA, Melissa Ansell-Bridges - Executive Director Actors Equity and Sioux MacDonald - Vice President SIGANZ

You can read the following full recommendations by the FIWG.

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2019

FIWG Recommendations - The Government Responds

In May 2019, Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway responds to the FIWG. He agrees to endorse the FIWG’s recommendations subject to limiting the scope of workers covered by their proposed model, create a new regulatory framework for contractors doing screen production work and commence consultation with parties in the screen industry on draft legislation giving effect to the policy decisions in this paper.

This kicks off another year of consultation around the drafting of the legislation between Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and the smaller FIWG cohort.

You can read the following full response from government.

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2020

Screen Industry Workers Bill - Introduced to parliament

In February 2020 the Screen Industry Workers Bill completed drafting and was introduced to Parliament. This started the process of readings and investigation through the Education and Workforce Select Committee:

5 March 2020 - First Reading of the draft legislation in Parliament

25 May 2020 - Written Submissions to the Education and Workforce Select Committee

Jun-Jul 2020 - Oral submissions presented to the Education and Workforce Select Committee

6 Aug 2020 - Select Committee Deliver their report to Parliament

You can keep up to date on the progress of the bill below.

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2022

Screen Industry Workers Bill - An update

In March 2022, Minster of Workplace Relations and Safety Hon Michael Wood indicated that the Bill would proceed to Second Reading in the  second half of 2022. If successful, this would mean that the Bill would come into effect in December 2022.

Watch this space!

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2022

Screen Industry Workers ACT

In September 2022, the Bill successfully passed in parliament and became an Act - the Screen Industry Workers Act (SIWA).

The Act comes into force 30 December 2022.

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