The Stage

Shed risks Pact expulsion for flouting pay agreement

Published Thursday 10 February 2005 at 10:40 by Liz Thomas

Shed Productions, the independent company that has created shows such as Bad Girls and Footballers’ Wives, has been accused of flouting industry agreements on supporting artists and should be expelled from Pact, says Bectu.

The Film Artistes’ Association - which is affiliated to the broadcasting union - claims extras on the latest series of Bad Girls have been hired by a firm which does not use the minimum pay contracts agreed by the FAA, Pact and the National Association of Supporting Artistes Agencies.

The company, Solomon’s Agency, is not breaking any laws but an FAA spokesman complained that, as a Pact member, Shed should not have used the firm.

“We look after independent production extras and as such we have negotiated a daily and nightly rate of pay with Pact which represents the interests of the independent production companies. While the agreement is not legally binding, we would expect [Pact] companies to uphold it,” said the spokesman.

“This is a well-funded production company with a reasonable budget yet it is using the services of an agency that pays below the agreed rate. If there is a problem they should be negotiating with us. This is a peak-time production on a main channel, so why are they trying to scrimp and save on the lowest-paid part of the production?”

The spokesperson added: “We don’t want this to open the floodgates with companies thinking they can ignore these agreements. We are going to take a stand on this. We are going to request to Pact that [Shed Productions] is expelled and we are going to ask our members to contact Shed to protest on this issue.”

The union’s agreement sets the rate for extra work at £69.43 for a nine-hour day, including a one-hour lunch break, while FAA chairman Paul Kirby said Shed’s deal with the agency only offered supporting artists around £80 for a 12-hour day. Solomon’s Agency is not bound by FAA or NASAA agreements and can offer pay deals that vary from company to company.

A spokesperson for Shed said: “In Bad Girls we have a huge amount of extras and we found costs were mounting. We have a new production team and they decided to approach an agency they have experience with. We do want to work within the FAA agreements and we will be meeting with Bectu to see if we can negotiate an agreement.”

A Pact spokesperson said it would not be appropriate to comment but the matter had been looked into.