Directors back more talks on rights

The campaign to improve rights for film and TV directors has received support from a 200-strong meeting in London.

Members of BECTU and the Directors' Guild of Great Britain (DGGB) met on September 14 to hear reports on negotiations with industry employers which began when the union and the guild agreed to a three-month suspension of their "rights assignment" campaign.

Negotiators from three organisations - BECTU, DGGB, and the Directors and Producers Rights Society (DPRS) - were authorised by the meeting to carry on talks with the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and the main employers' association PACT.

Members were told at the meeting that authors' rights, and adequate payment for directors, were at the top of the negotiators' agenda. Also on the list of issues being discussed with employers were the status of directors in production teams during casting and post-production, their working conditions, and pay rates.

All three organisations believe that status, pay, and working conditions have deteriorated in recent years, and have called for improvements in directors' contracts on these issues on top of the basic demand for authors' rights to be acknowledged.

Under current UK laws, directors are recognised along with writers as "authors" of their films and programmes. However, all major broadcasters and production companies refuse to include in directors' contracts the financial benefits that ought to be paid for authors' rights.

In a campaign led by the three organisations, hundreds of directors have transferred their intellectual property rights to DPRS over the last year in order to combine their collective bargaining power, instead of being picked off one by one.

The major employers agreed to start talks on directors' rights in return for an agreement that, until November this year, directors who had assigned their rights to DPRS would still be able to enter traditional contracts without any payment for their authors' rights.

Negotiators told the London meeting that the talks with employers had been constructive, however some directors warned that they were being told that they would be refused work after November if they remained members of the rights assignment campaign.

Further negotiations were due to start on September 20, and the three organisations hoped to be able to present a comprehensive package, including new contracts covering the whole TV and film industry, to members on November 9.

Otherwise, the campaign to prevent exploitation of directors' rights, including new assignments of rights to the DPRS, would be stepped up.