MPC to offer absolute minimum redundancy payments?

Statutory redundancy. Only statutory redundancy.

Last week, we posted our astonishment at MPC's general attitude as a company to talent and quality. Readers will remember that they're largely closing down the Compositing Department that won them the Oscar for Jungle Book a few short months ago - and they're replacing them with the sort of low wage "trainees" that they can get (thanks to Apprenticeship subsidies) to mind the shop until they need to crew up again for a big job.

It couldn't stink any more than it does, right?

Wrong.

If what we are hearing is correct, the award winning staff that are being made redundant are being told that they will only receive "statutory redundancy." That is the absolute minimum redundancy payment that can be paid without being illegal.

Normally, when someone is in a high-value occupation, they would expect the employer to want to retain their skills by offering them a reasonable package - not just a reasonable rate for the hours that they work (not including unpaid overtime).

They would expect at the very least...

• A reasonable amount of sick pay - allowing for some paid time off if you get the lurgy
• A competitive pensions package that shows that the employer has your long-term interests at heart
• A humane approach to your working hours - knowing what all good employers know - that you get more productivity from sensible hours than you get from seven long-day weeks.
• A notice-and-redundancy package to reassure them that they won't be let go lightly

When employers say that they aim to value and retain staff, one would tend to expect something like "a month for every year" deal - this is a tax-free (up to £30k) payment of one month's salary, plus a notice period of three months. This is the kind of deal you would expect from a company in this sector (if the company recognises unions, anyway).

This means that they will pay you one month's salary for every full year you have worked for them as "compensation for loss of employment" along with a notice period that they may or may not need you to work (but you will get paid for them if you don't work it).

Some of the more cheapskate employers go for "three weeks for every year" or something like that, but as far as the visual effects industry goes, they never act this way. For these employers, what's on the table is rarely more than the absolute bare legal minimum.

The London VFX facilities offer only one week for every year that you have worked - capped at £489 - a lot less than a quarter of what some employees in other comparable industries get for redundancy.

The 'statutory cap (for workers aged under 41) at only £489 per week is particularly insulting. So someone earning, say £40,000, who has worked for five years at a company offering the standard "month for every year" and "three months notice" deal would earn around £16,700 tax-free redundancy and would have a three month notice period, or a payment of £10,000 if they didn't work it.

The same employee, now being laid off from MPC - having just won them an Oscar - would get a tax-free payment of only £2,445 and five weeks pay of £3846 - if the employer decides not to make them work their notice period (we're not clear yet what the deal is on this).

The bottom line is, vfx facilities like MPC want to reap all the rewards from their employees, but are not willing to go the extra mile to show how much they value the dedication and talent of their workers. Not so long ago in November, 2014, there was an article in Variety where the CEO of MPC Mark Benson said that for The Moving Picture Company, "Valuing Artists is the Best Effect".

Everybody knew it wasn't true back then and it seems very much like isn't true today either.

7 Day Weeks at it again

Another show down, and it's the same old story. We have anonymously received copies of emails encouraging long hours, seven day weeks; and citing false deadlines from one of the BIG VFX Houses.Changing Deadlines:Artists were given a hard deadline of Friday and then asked to be on call over the following weekend after being asked to come in the previous weekend both days. They were told "As of this very second, the clients have NOT said that we can have any extra time. This means that whatever does not make it to Technicolor by 5pm on Friday will not be in the theatrical release of the film." Then shots were continued to be worked into the next week. We can only hope that Hollywood did allow changes into the theatrical release.How often do we hear this in VFX? How often do the Hollywood Studios take advantage of US and come up with a FALSE DEADLINE to which we work late hours to achieve and then this deadline is magically extended to allow more time on shots? Why do the VFX Studios we work for seem to play into this and allow their employees to work unsociable hours to cater to these whims instead of keeping to the hard deadlines and then allowing employees the downtime they deserve? Are the Hollywood Studios even to blame or is this a ploy by companies to push artists to finish shots before they move onto their next show?Long Hours and 7 Day Weeks Encouraged:Further emails asked artists to "check in with production before you leave for the day" and artists were also encouraged to come to work both days on the last weekend of the show. Encouraged when the emails acknowledged that many artists "have already pulled a lot of 7 day weeks, and this is always massively appreciated."While it may be massive appreciated, it also illegal under UK law and it's not something that you can OPT out of, even voluntarily except in very specific circumstances (ex: rescue personnel in a natural disaster)There are 3 types of rest breaks enshrined in UK Law:

• 20 minute breaks if they work more than 6 hours
• 11 hours between shifts
• 24 hours uninterrupted each week and 48 hours uninterrupted each fortnight.

The Visual Effects Companies need to ensure that their employees are given the necessary rest times to allow for healthy lives. While we all understand deadlines, it should never come at such cost to the employee, especially if no compensation is given.Companies need to encourage artists to follow the UK entitlement laws on breaks and rest periods instead of encouraging them to miss them, undermining their health and ultimately their performance. BECTU is fighting to put a stop to these abuses.If this is happening to you at work, BECTU can help.Find out more information on breaks from the UK Government website: https://www.gov.uk 

Pensions and VFX

As a VFX worker, have you ever thought about what it will be like when you reach the age of 67? Will your pension be enough for you to live on? Will your health still allow you to work 70 hours a week to deliver the latest instalment of your grandchildren’s favourite superhero movie? And will it still be OK if you only get paid for 40 out of those 70 hours?With a current average life expectancy in Western Europe of 84 years for females and 79 years for males, chances are that sooner or later we will have to answer those questions.In the tables below, the Bectu VFX branch - i.e. ordinary VFX workers like you - have gathered and compared pension schemes from some of the major London VFX companies, based on the information provided to us by our colleagues who work at these companies. Let’s have a look:(N.B. The real attraction of these contributions from yourself and your employers is that they are “tax-free” - it is a very efficient way to save for your old age).

Double Negative
Address	160 Great Portland Street, London W1W 5QA
Number of employees	900-1000
Pension provider	Scottish Widows
Enrollment	Available after 3 months of service
Contribution structure (% of salary)	From Oct. 2013: employee contribution 1%, employer contribution 1%.From Oct. 2017: employee contribution 3%, employer contribution 2%.From Oct. 2018: employee contribution 5%, employer contribution 3%.

Framestore
Address	19-23 Wells Street, London W1T 3PQ
Number of employees	700-800
Pension provider	Scottish Widows
Enrollment	Available twice annually.
Contribution structure (% of salary)	Employees may pay any percentage they wish; Framestore matches the employee's contribution up to the following limits:0-1 years' service: no employer contribution.1-2 years' service: employer matches employee contribution, capped at 1%.2-3 years' service: employer matches employee contribution, capped at 2%.3-4 years' service: employer matches employee contribution, capped at 3%.4+ years' service: employer matches employee contribution, capped at 4%.

Industrial Light & Magic (ILM)
Address	Hend House, 233 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8EE
Number of employees	300-400
Pension provider	Royal London
Enrollment	Available after 3 months of service
Contribution structure (% of salary)	Year 1: employer contribution 1%, employee contribution 1%.Year 2: employer contribution 3%, employee contribution 3%.Year 3 onwards: employer contribution 4%, employee contribution 5%.

The Moving Picture Company (MPC)
Address	127 Wardour Street, London W1F 0NL
Number of employees	Approx. 700
Pension provider	Aegon
Enrollment	Available after 3 months of service
Contribution structure (% of salary)	Until April 2018: employer contribution 1%, employee contribution 1%.Until April 2019: employer contribution 2%, employee contribution 3%.Beyond April 2019: employer contribution 3%, employee contribution 5%.

So, for example, let’s say you are a freelance VFX artist who gets hired by ILM on a 6-month PAYE contract. After 3 months of service you will be offered to join the company’s Royal London pension scheme. If you opt-in, ILM will take 1% of your salary from your monthly payroll and match it with another 1%, all of which goes into the Royal London pension pot. Jolly good.After 3 months of payments into your pension, your contract ends. ILM will stop making contributions into your fund, which becomes dormant.You go job hunting again and you are lucky enough to land a 1-year contract at Framestore. During that time you will have the option to join the company’s Scottish Widows pension scheme, but unfortunately Framestore will not match any of your contributions into your pension pot.When your contract at Framestore comes to an end, you are hired again by ILM, where - after 3 months of service - you will again be offered to start making contributions into the same Royal London pension scheme you joined a year and 3 months earlier, starting again from the lowest contribution level.Chances are that by the time you reach your retirement age you will have collected at least half a dozen small pension funds from different providers. Every time you move home or your circumstances change you will have to notify each and every one of them. Until, when it's finally time to retire, you are likely to receive a very small amount of money from a multitude of pension providers.On top of that, there are a lot of three-month periods where you will not be earning any pension at all.It’s finally worth noting that these levels of contributions are fairly close to being the bare legal minimum in most cases.Bectu negotiates with employers in the TV and Film industries who offer contributions that are “matched” (i.e. employees and employers both contribute 5%) or even “better than matched” (i.e. a 1-for-2 scheme where employees contribute 4% and employers pay in 8%) with very high caps - often up to 10%.We are in an age where state provision of welfare is falling and the expectation of private pension provision is rising. It’s time that VFX companies step up and care about the welfare of their employees. 

What can the Bectu VFX branch do?

Quite a lot, actually. The union can push for London VFX companies to adopt the same pension provider, so that if you keep moving from one company to another on short term contracts you will cumulatively keep making payments into one single pension pot. The NEST scheme was set up with exactly this eventuality in mind. And if you return to a company after a few years you won't have to start all over again from the lowest contribution level. Bectu can also push for a better pension deal in line with what other media companies are already offering.These things are not impossible to get, and no they won’t kill the London VFX industry. But there is a catch. The Bectu VFX branch is a union of VFX workers, and as such is only as strong as the sum of its members. We have grown a lot in recent times, but even with the current membership numbers we are simply not strong enough to be able to challenge big VFX companies, which can happily keep offering their employees only the bare minimum of employee benefits. A tiny improvement in your pension provision would more than cover the cost of your union dues.If we don’t stick together right now asking for a better pension deal, we will certainly be on our own when - after a lifetime of sitting down in dark rooms staring at computer screens - our health will fade and we will no longer be able to sustain the punishing working hours of a movie delivery schedule.Joining Bectu is confidential and requires no political affiliation.Happy 2017!

Fantastic Beasts but where to find Crew Credits?

Once again many hard working vfx workers were unfortunately excluded from the latest VFX blockbuster hit "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."  The film, in its third weekend, has dominated the box office for Warner Brothers and has earned a massive $608M globally. Yet that money is not enough to convince Warner Brothers to include all the names of those who worked to create a land of magic and creatures entirely in CG.One has to wonder what Warner Brothers would do without the talent that creates the beasts, magic and 1920s New York City that makes Harry Potter such a blockbuster hit. The franchise was even nominated 3 times for visual effects oscars (2004, 2010, 2011) and with awards season fast approaching it would be no surprise if the latest J.K. Rowling installment was up again for visual effects nominations.Of the over 600 crew at lead vender Double Negative, less than half were credited. This is of course is after shoving all 277 credited names into a big block to fit as many people as possible on the roll. While we can applaud Double Negative intention to buy a Cinefex ad and include a full credit list, you have to wonder if the least a company could give for the blood, sweat and unpaid late nights that go into many films shouldn't at least bare minimum include credits for all cast and crew. The news was similar for Cinesite's crew with only around one-third in the credits. It's not all bad news though, for the smaller team housed at visual effects company MILK, around 90% of crew received credits.It's just more proof that the majority of the hardworking crew, who spend many late nights to develop an amazing well earning blockbuster, don't get the credit they deserve.

No Credit? Star Trek's Beyond leaves two-thirds of VFX Artists off end Credits.

It's official. Star Trek's opening weekend Box Office pulled in around $182 million coinciding with the franchise's 50th anniversary. One of the heaviest Visual Effects films of the summer, it's no surprise that the VFX community here in London pulled off awe-inspiring visuals for this blockbuster, but artists expecting a bit of starlight and Hollywood spectacle are likely to be disappointed.  We've heard that two-thirds of the hardworking individuals for this film didn't get the opportunity to see their name on the big screen.It is rumored that Paramount originally only initially wanted to give 100 credits, and Double Negative, the lead VFX house on this, pegged them up to a little over 300 names to split between London, Vancouver, Singapore and Mumbai. For a team of nearly 900 artists, it's just another notch on the growing divide felt between the treatment of the rest of Hollywood and the visual effects industry.Double Negative's valiant efforts still leave a crushing blow for the artists left out.  As one of the few non unionized Hollywood workforces we are often at the bottom of the credit list, almost tacked on as an afterthought, while assistants to the assistants and catering names come up ahead of us.  It is the power of the Hollywood unions that has ensured their members don't get left out.The union negotiations with Hollywood studios are the reason why other film industries get higher billing and a long credit list.Why are we being left out?  With digital reels, it would cost no extra money to add extra lines to include VFX crew in the credits. It's another slap in the face, showing how under-represented and under-appreciated we VFX artists are in an industry when it's often OUR shots that brings in an audience and profits to Hollywood Studios.

VFX News

this is it!

THE  BIG VFX MEETING

7:00pm WEDNESDAY, 22ND JUNE

REGENT HALL, 275 OXFORD STREET, LONDON, W1C 2DJ

click here for more info

 VFX Union members and non members alike are invited for an opportunity to hear about all our work over the past year, to discuss and to give feedback, and to have your say on where the VFX branch should focus its efforts next.We're in the middle of a Visual Effects Industry Revolution! Our membership has exploded by over 500% in the last year and we need you to keep pushing this amazing momentum forward. If you're not a member, come along and find out what the visual effects union is all about! If you're already a member, bring a friend or two!We'll be talking about all the work that the VFX Branch has done over the past year, and what the coming year might hold. There'll be an opportunity for questions and feedback from the floor. This will be followed by a talk about the EU Referendum and the likely effects on the vfx industry in the case of a “leave” vote.Non members can join the union on the night and there will be a special members only voting session at the end of the event to elect branch officers and decide our priorities for 2016-17. Sign up to attend here:VFX Union Mass Meeting

Visual Effects News and Stories from Around the Web

Pressure on VFX firms to locate in tax havens

Ant-Man Visual effects firms are under continuing pressure from production companies and studios to locate in parts of the world that offer the best tax ...

Oscars 2017: Which movies are contenders so far?

The consensus: "It is a lock for visual effects," AwardsCircuit's Davis says. "However, with science-fiction films coming out this year like Story of Your ...

Afternoon Delight: 'Every Best Visual Effects Winner. Ever.'

There aren't any hot trending videos that are doing it for me at the moment, so I'll pull out this one that I came across not long ago. If you're a real film ...

China's First CGI Film: LORD It Looks Bad

In response to the barrage of online criticism, a visual effects technician from Original Force, the biggest animation production company in Asia — and ...

SIGGRAPH 2016 Production Sessions To Host "Making Of" Hit Motion Pictures, Games, VR Films ...

Juried and curated content includes outstanding achievements in time-based art, scientific visualization, visual effects, games, real-time graphics, ...

VFX's Annual General Meeting

The Most Important VFX Meeting of the Year!

• It's your time to decide. Come to our Annual General Meeting next Wednesday and hear about what BREXIT could mean for VFX.
• Vote and decide on next year's important issues and choose who represents you as committee members.
• Most importantly help lead the discussion and become one of the committee members yourself!

All VFX employees welcome! All you have to do is sign-up HERE

To nominate yourself or another union member for the committee please email all nominations to Paul Evans <pevans@bectu.org.uk> by 5pm on June 19. All positions open for nominations and vote including: Branch Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Communications or just general committee member.

VFX Union Mass Meeting - 22nd June!

FREE ENTRY!

Regents Hall 275 Oxford Street W1C 2 DJ

7:00pm - Wednesday, 22nd June 2016

http://tinyurl.com/vfxagm2016 

VFX Union members and non members alike are invited for an opportunity to hear about all our work over the past year, to discuss and to give feedback, and to have your say on where the VFX branch should focus its efforts next.We're in the middle of a Visual Effects Industry Revolution! Our membership has exploded by over 500% in the last year and we need you to keep pushing this amazing momentum forward. If you're not a member, come along and find out what the visual effects union is all about! If you're already a member, bring a friend or two!We'll be talking about all the work that the VFX Branch has done over the past year, and what the coming year might hold. There'll be an opportunity for questions and feedback from the floor. This will be followed by a talk about the EU Referendum and the likely effects on the vfx industry in the case of a “leave” vote.Non members can join the union on the night and there will be a special members only voting session at the end of the event to elect branch officers and decide our priorities for 2016-17.Please sign up to attend here:VFX Union Mass Meeting

Unions: Raising The Bar

"Unions have a spillover effect that helps the entire middle class. When employers perceive that unions could possibly organize their workforce, they deliberately keep wages and benefits close to union wages and benefits, in order to keep the union out of their workforce. This spillover effect is a clear example of how unions benefit even those who are not covered by a union contract."— Lawrence Mishel, President, Economic Policy Institutevia Unions 4 Workers

UK VFX Union featured on fxguide podcast!

Paul Evans, the BECTU national official for the vfx branch and Joe Pavlo, the vfx branch chair had a chat with Jeff Heuser from the fxguide podcast to talk about their work in the UK to establish a Visual Effects Union. A lot of ground was covered from the explosive growth of the vfx union in the UK over the last year, to some of the issues facing people working in the visual effects industry and a look ahead at the future of the union in the visual effects industry.listen to the episode here:

fxpodcast #303: UK Union update

We discuss the latest info about UK visual effects artists who are seeking union representation. Joe Pavlo (artist) and Paul Evans (BECTU) are our guests. Unpaid overtime, fear, social media, how to organize, collusion, opting out of overtime... just a few of the things Joe and Paul discuss with our Jeff Heusser

also available to download in iTunes

Inspired? Why not come along to the Thursday VFX LunchMeet every week from 1-2pm in the courtyard at St. Anne's Church, Wardour Street (nr. Shaftesbury Avenue) and find our more about the vfx union - or just cut to the chase and join the union right now!

VFX Branch wins award!

At the BECTU National Conference over the weekend, the Visual Effects Branch was honoured with the Roger Bolton Memorial Award. It's basically the unions "branch of the year" award and it was presented to members of the committee at the conference in recognition of our record breaking recruitment over the last year and our recognition campaigns at MPC and Framestore!Come along to our Thursday VFX Lunchmeet today from 1-2pm at Jurassic Church (St. Anne's, Wardour Street - nr. Shatesbury Avenue) so we can give each other high fives and pats on the back! Grab a sandwich or some sushi, sit on the grass, soak up a little sunshine and chat about what's happening in the world of London VFX!

1:00-2:00pm Thursday

The Jurassic Church

(St. Anne's, Wardour Street - nr. Shaftesbury Avenue)

Thursday VFX Lunchmeet back at the Jurassic Church today!

With London weather, you've gotta be prepared to grab some sunshine at a moments notice! Spring seems to be finally here and the weather is gorgeous, so we're moving the Thursday Lunchmeet back to the courtyard at St. Anne's Church on Wardour Street (a.k.a. The Jurassic Church)!

1:00-2:00 Thursday at The Jurassic Church

(St. Anne's, Wardour Street, nr. Shaftesbury Ave.)

 Grab a sandwich or some sushi, sit on the grass, soak up a little sunshine and chat about what's happening in the world of London VFX! Come along and tell us what you think about your experiences with the HourlyRateCalculator! It's going to be a beautiful day, and I'm promised the T-Rex will behave itself and stay in the enclosure the entire time. 

1:00-2:00pm Thursday at

The Jurassic Church

(St. Anne's, Wardour Street)

We are going to be here this Thursday and every Thursday to help connect and motivate people who work in London visual effects! 

See you there! Bring along a friend! Make new friends! The VFX Union can only work for you when you get involved!

Look for the green flag!

VFXForum Living Wage calculator for Nuke!

UPDATED! Now works in Nuke, Maya, Houdini and anything that uses Python!

Is unpaid overtime driving down your hourly rate below the Living Wage?

One of the problems with unpaid overtime in the visual effects industry is that although we frequently work an extra hour or two (or six!), very few of us stop and think about the effect on our wages. It never occurs to most people that an extra 2 hours in the evening effectively means being paid 20% less per hour!For example, if someone is on an annual salary of £20K and they are working 40 hours per week, that works out to £9.62 per hour. This is OK. This VFX employee is earning just above the London Living Wage for the hours they put in at work.But what if that same person on £20K ends up working an extra 20 hours of unpaid overtime one week? At this point, they are not only making well below the London Living Wage at £6.41 per hour, but now they are earning below the National Living Wage and that is actually illegal.BECTU campaigns for every worker in the UK's profitable Film and TV industries to be paid the London Living Wage (£9.40 per hour) as an absolute minimum and if people are being paid less than that because of unpaid overtime, we'd like to know about it.It is illegal for you to be earning less than the National Living Wage which is currently £7.20 for people aged 25 and over or £6.70 for people aged 21-24. If you are earning less than this, then please let BECTU know. BECTU can help to take legal steps to ensure that employees are earning at least the National Living Wage and we will do it without identifying you personally.

So now for the fun bit...

Would you like a quick and easy way to calculate what you're making per hour after factoring in unpaid overtime? We've knocked together a little Nuke script which will make calculating your hourly rate easy peasy lemon squeezy!Download the text for our HourlyRateCalculator and copy/paste it in to your Nuke script. It will look like this:Simply enter your annual salary and the hours you work per week Load it in to the Viewer to see your calculated hourly rate. There you go! I hope you all find this little Nuke script useful and illuminating. Play around with it. Try out different values for your salary and hours and see what comes out. The HourlyRateCalculator can be a valuable tool for people at all levels of experience and pay grades. Maybe that extra £2K they're offering you to promote you to Lead on the next show is not going to be all that great once you factor in all the free overtime the facility will be expecting!Please feel free to share this script with anyone and everyone in VFX. Go ahead and install it in your Nuke Plug Ins so you can check your hours any time you need to!

Update 1! Now available to download as a .nk file from Nukepedia!

Download the HourlyRateCalculator here!

Update 2! Here is the same calculator as a Python script - which you can use in Nuke, Maya, Houdini and other Python friendly apps!

HourlyRateCalculator (Python)

Take the VFXforum Poll!

[polldaddy poll=9403364] 

Large BECTU survey points to serious concerns from MPC's visual effects workers

full article on BECTU's website here

Bare necessities missing for VFX workers at MPC

“Moving Picture Company appears to encapsulate everything that is wrong with employment in UK VFX in microcosm” says BECTU, the media and entertainment union.In a large-scale survey of people who have worked at London's Moving Picture Company (MPC), conducted in the week leading up to the UK premiere ofJungle Book, BECTU has found a workforce, both past and present, that has serious concerns about the company's coercive working culture, with widespread complaints from world-class VFX artists about pressures to work excessive unpaid overtime.In late 2015, BECTU started actively recruiting at MPC, which provided VFX services on Jungle Book.  In campaigning for union recognition, members were taken aback by management's hostility to this move; recruitment literature was removed and discussion about the union was banned in staff forums. Thankfully, part of the company's attempts to keep the union out resulted in small improvements to management attitudes towards their staff, but - as BECTU's survey shows - significant concerns remain.In particular, members were conscious of unfair pressure resulting from the company's culture of short-term contracts. MPC has an employee-profile that dramatically contradicts UK Screen's claims that "91% of the UK VFX workforce have a permanent contract."

Short term contracts increase workplace pressures

Instead, MPC appears to have an overwhelming preference for short-term contracts, with a surprising number of individual respondents (in free-text comments) making a direct link between this and the climate of pressure from managers, particularly on unpaid overtime.Significant numbers of staff were prepared to say that:

• MPC is not interested in a fair dialogue with independently-minded employees
• they have little faith in the 'Crew Forum' as a means of resolving problems fairly (current employees were significantly sceptical)
• work-life balance for VFX artists at MPC is often very bad.

There were widespread fears around:

• refusing to work unpaid overtime
• raising legitimate grievances with management
• management finding out about individuals' BECTU membership.

There was a significant number of respondents who complained of "unwelcome pressure" or feeling harassed by colleagues / management, and an even larger number of respondents who said that they knew of colleagues who had experienced such pressure. A very clear majority of the respondents who knew about unwelcome pressure believed that reporting such behaviour would be frowned upon (in many cases because management were the ones behaving badly).Paul Evans, BECTU national official, supporting VFX workers said:"These results are very disturbing and we hope that MPC will agree to work with us on a full independent survey on this subject so that it can be dealt with properly. The VFX sector is now a central part of the UK film industry. It is astonishing that most survey respondents were frightened that MPC would find out that they are members of a trade union, and that there was a widespread fear of raising concerns, reporting unwelcome pressure and asking for a responsive management."MPC appears to encapsulate everything that is wrong with employment in UK VFX in microcosm – particularly the way the business is structured to pressure people into working long hours without being paid for overtime. In a few clear cases, respondents reported direct bullying and intimidation from managers."If the UK VFX industry is to retain the talent that it needs to survive and grow, it needs to be a race to the top, and not to the bottom. We need London to lose its reputation for excessive unpaid overtime, and this forms part of BECTU’s wider campaign to ensure that everyone in the film industry is paid for all of the hours that they work." BECTU is the media and entertainment union for the UKread the full article on BECTU's website here 

This Thursday and every Thursday, union members and other vfx people get together at our weekly lunch meet where we chat about things that are important to people in the vfx industry.

We will be meeting this Thursday April 14th  1:00 – 2:00 pm  @ Kingley Ct, Carnaby St. 

Look for the green flag!

JOIN THE DISCUSSION! Sick Pay: Part 2

How does your sick pay stack-up?

On our previous blog post we talked about sick pay, but do you ever wonder how your sick pay might stack up comparably? How it might stack up to other unionized sick pay?The VFX BECTU Union Branch welcomes any company's decision to give employees entitlement to some sick pay and it’s great to see employees speaking up and having serious dialogue about sick pay with some employers, but in reality offering 0.5 days per completed month, up to a maximum of 5.5 days within the first year of employment is peanuts in comparison to other employers in the media and entertainment industries. The fact that so many employees in VFX are on short-term contracts means that even this paltry offer rarely ever matures into anything that would cover more than a couple of days paid sickness leave. Especially when we as workers can feel guilty about using those days during crunch and having our colleagues pick-up the slack when we’re all a team and under the gun together. Not to mention that it seems more and more these days we are in shorter deadlines and crunchtime with more work to do than ever. Those sick days are of course used or lost and do not accumulate and when you change jobs, you must reenter another qualifying period even if you are returning to a company whom you’ve been employed with before. Although something is better than nothing, not every visual effects company has had this policy. In fact, while not London based, Rhythm and Hues actually offered cumulative employment periods. That mean that returning contract employees didn’t have to re-enter a qualifying period if rehired. Their previous time employed, even with breaks, was counted overall for qualifying for extra holidays, sick days and medical.We are aware that the VFX companies have a joint HR working group that is hosted by UK Screen and establishing something like this as a cross-sector arrangement would be a welcome development for the companies to offer fairly standard sickness terms to their owns staff and could help freelancers carry days with them to new companies. We also think that a cross sector arrangement might be beneficial helping visual effects companies come up to par with similar employers in the media and entertainment industries.BECTU has seen comparative surveys of London-based media companies holiday offerings and the BBC turns out to have the lowest sick-pay provision - and even they pay up to four weeks sick pay for each illness, and up to 13 weeks for all absences to all staff who have worked less than two years in the company (the entitlement doubles after two years). There is no qualifying period on this.If anything, because so many staff are on short-term contracts, we would expect an employer like this to offer much more generous terms. In the West End Theatres, while there are qualifying periods for earning more than Statutory Sick Pay, the industry has recognised that short-term contracts are a problem and the employers who are members of the Society of West End Theatres often use 'continuous employment in The West End' rather than continuous employment with individual employers as the qualifying measure for terms and conditions that vary based on length of service. This makes sense to us on at the VFX BECTU Branch, after all, many times it’s not the employees or the company’s fault when there are gaps in projects. We fully understand that things get pushed, deadlines change, and sequences get cut on the editing room floor. However, we must admit that this is felt most by those who have contributed so much to the success of countless Hollywood Blockbuster that make millions who inturn then must deal with uncertainty and gaps in employment. While the gaps may be unavoidable, surely starting over and over at the same companies and reentering qualifying periods is something we can change.  As shown above this would be completely achievable and is already done by the West End Theatres and indeed was even implemented by another visual effects company. This small change could make a world of difference for visual effects employees. It could even be broadened into a shared pension scheme, so workers don’t have to continuously roll individual pensions from one company to the next as they switch jobs and instead work through a “continuous employment in London Visual Effects” as the qualifying measure for terms and conditions that vary based on the length of service.

This Thursday and every Thursday, union members and other vfx people get together at our weekly lunch meet where we chat about things that are important to people in the vfx industry.

We will be meeting this Thursday March 24  1:00 – 2:00 pm  @ Kingley Ct, Carnaby St. 

Look for the green flag

Thursday VFX Lunch Meet

Come along to the VFX Lunch Meet every Thursday in Kingley Court (off Carnaby St) from 1:00-2:00!

Visual effects BECTU members and people who work in visual effect are meeting up every Thursday to talk about the union and issues that are interesting to people who work in the VFX here in London. This is a chance to change our industry from the ground up by connecting with like minded people and creating our own grassroots movement. 

Please come and join us today and every Thursday from 1:00-2:00. All are welcome.

Look for the green flag!

JOIN THE DISCUSSION! This week’s topic: Sick Pay

Why Sick Pay is Good for Everyone.

You may have read on our last blog post about MPC’s sick pay policy change. But did you know that this came about from departmental meetings from employees? Meetings that were organised to discuss the ongoing union recognition bid at MPC and give employees’ a voice? Something that was a direct consequence of BECTU’s bid as an alternative to solve internal issues? Well done employees and MPC for giving employees under one year sick pay. It’s great to see that employees voices are finally getting heard.Before this change, employees had to work over one year before receiving any sick days. While in the short term this policy might be perceived to cost a company more money by allowing more employees to have sick pay, it should actually cost the company less money and here is why.Did you know that sick employees are estimated to cost employers twice as much as absenteeism from to illness due to  underperformance on those days?  Let’s be honest; when someone doesn’t feel well they don’t perform well; take longer to get better; and if contagious are likely spread their cold to colleagues.  But it’s not just pathogens their coworkers catch as this in turn will spread underperformance from a under weather workforce.  In a study of the H1N1 flu pandemic from 2009; results showed that outbreaks lasted longer in workplaces without paid sick days than those with sick days.Maybe that sounds extreme, but when a lot of us work long hours we don’t have as much time to rest. We probably eat too many unhealthy take away work dinners, forgo the exercise and feel stressed to boot. All four of these things studies have shown to wreak havoc on the human immune system making us more susceptible to colds. Now add to the fact that many of us travel on public transportation to work in one the biggest cities in the world with 8.5 million people, and that’s a heady recipe for flu city. This of course has a big knock on effect to projects under tight deadlines.So even the cost savings seems clear, under UK law, employers do not have to provide anything past statutory sick pay. To qualify workers must be off work for more than 4 days and results in 88.45 a week.  It is well known that union workers receive better sick benefits than their nonunion counterparts.  Better sick pay is just one of those many benefits. BECTU fully believes that everyone has a right to sick pay and should not feel compelled to come to work for fear of salary loss. 

Has this been an issue for you? Are you satisfied with sick pay policy where you work? Tell us about it! Want to have your say? Come along to our weekly lunch meet-up where we get together and chat about things that are important to people in the vfx industry.

We will be meeting this Thursday March 3  1:00 – 2:00 pm  @ Kingley Ct, Carnaby St. 

Look for the green flag

Thank The Union For Paid Holiday!

If you're on a short term contract (i.e. less than 1 year) at one of London's Visual Effects facilities, here's a question for you:

Why do the facilities give you four weeks paid holiday?

Two reasons... 

1) Because if the facilities gave you any less paid holiday, it would be illegal!

2) Because the media and entertainment union BECTU (your visual effects union) launched a legal challenge against UK legislation in 1999 taking the fight for freelance contract workers all the way to the European Court of Justice. 

BECTU was successful and the courts ruled in June 2001 that the UK government was in breach of European employment law in denying freelance workers and those on short-term contracts the right to four weeks paid annual leave.

So never forget, before June 2001 if you were a freelance contract worker, you were not entitled to four weeks paid holiday like other staff colleagues. Now, thanks to BECTU fighting for your rights, paid holiday for freelance contract workers is the law.

Do you want a good reason to join the union? That's a pretty good reason. How about these... 

Do you want to keep your four weeks of paid holiday? 

Do you think that businesses would like to get out of having to give you paid holiday if they could? 

Do you think their lobbyists are working on ways to erode or remove this benefit right now? 

BECTU is the only force that fights for your interests when legislation is reviewed or new laws come up for a vote. 

This is what the union does for us - Thank you BECTU!

Support the union. Join now.

MPC Rethinks Its Sickness Policy

Yesterday MPC announced a U-turn to the company's sickness policy which had already been officially updated less than six months ago.With MPC's management perhaps feeling pressure from the the wave of VFX unionisation sweeping the industry, freelancers on 1 year or less contracts are now entitled to up to 5.5 days of sick pay per year. This is a huge improvement as up until now employees had 0.0 days of sick pay during their first year of employment.This simply would not have happened if artists in the MPC comp department had not previously joined BECTU in big numbers and asked the Union to formally put forward a recognition bid on their behalf.It's only by joining the Union and following a legal and democratic path established by the government that companies such as MPC will ever listen to its workforce.MPC keeps being openly hostile to the idea of a Union, depicting it as a "third party" who wants to dictate policies, while not realising that the Union is nothing but their own employees, who are unhappy about how they are being treated and who are asking for change.BECTU will keep pushing for recognition at all London VFX facilities in the months and years to come, and you can be sure to see more results like this happening.We hope you will join us. No more fear!