PACT digs in over directors' rights

An initiative to improve payments to film and TV directors has been snubbed by a major employers' association.

The Producers' Association for Cinema and Television (PACT) has refused to open talks with a union-backed organisation which hopes to act collectively on behalf of directors on issues like residual and repeat fees.

Currently directors are often not given these payments, despite having explicit rights under the Copyright Act as "authors".

A "substantial number" of skilled directors belonging to BECTU and the Directors' Guild of Great Britain (DGGB) are supporting a joint campaign to win payments for these rights. They have all handed over the legal intellectual property rights to their programmes to the Directors and Producers Rights Society (DPRS), in the hope that this will generate enough collective strength to force companies to change their policies of non-payment.

Three key bodies, the BBC, the ITVA, and PACT, were all invited to deal with directors' rights through the DPRS, instead of asking individual directors to sign their rights away, often as a condition of engagement.

Both the BBC and the ITVA, the ITV companies' grouping, have indicated that they would be willing to deal with the DPRS. However PACT, which groups together many companies in the independent production sector, gave a flat refusal to the campaign, and threatened that if directors refused to relinquish their rights, they would not be hired.

BECTU and DGGB director members are determined not to give up the campaign for payments, and the stand-off with PACT looks set to last for some time.