New #SAG-AFTRA Code of Ethics and Conduct

Newsflash from your Hollywood Attorney:

The new SAG-AFTRA Code of Ethics and Conduct is voluntary and marks a step into new territory for the union; it’s opposed by two associations of personal managers, including one that helped draft it.

Moving to regulate an area previously ungoverned by guilds or state agencies, SAG-AFTRA introduced a code of ethics and conduct for personal managers on Tuesday, the union said in a statement. The nine-page code is voluntary: managers are not required to sign up, and SAG-AFTRA members are free to engage managers who haven’t. Those managers who do sign up will be listed on the union’s website.

The new code has been under development for several years including, most intensively, in meetings with the management community in December 2013 and the months since. A December meeting was attended by over 200 managers, while later sessions were smaller work groups featuring members of the Talent Managers Association and independent managers.

“The establishment of the Personal Manager Code of Ethics and Conduct is a true ‘win-win,’ assuring important protections for SAG-AFTRA members while providing significant and meaningful benefits to our listed personal managers,” said SAG-AFTRA chief operating officer and general counsel Duncan Crabtree-Ireland. “We look forward to working more closely with our listed personal managers to further the interests of our members.”

The code requires, among other things, that if a manager uses written contracts (many do, but many don’t), the duration of the contract must be limited to 18 months for the initial term and 3 years for renewals; contracts, if any, cannot auto-renew; managers cannot collect up front or advance fees; they must not require the actor to use the services of any particular photographer, printer, school, acting coach or other professional in which the manager has a financial interest; and they must not solicit or procure work for actor except to the extent permitted by California or New York State law.

Solicitation and procurement of work are, of course, exactly what many actors want from their managers, but those activities are generally not legal in California unless conducted by a licensed talent agent. New York has a similar requirement, but with certain incidental exceptions. Those laws are intended to protect actors and others from unscrupulous representatives, but the tension between regulation and reality also can lead to discontent among agents, managers and even lawyers.

In addition, all disputes between manager and actor are subject to arbitration, if the manager has signed the Code.

The Talent Managers Association, despite having worked with the union on the Code, was unhappy with the final product and did not endorse it.

“After thoughtful review and consultation with legal counsel, our position is to advise members against signing the SAG-AFTRA code in its current highly restrictive and regulatory form,” said the TMA board in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “Currently, there are counterproductive elements we believe that can be further revised for everyone’s benefit.”

Also dissatisfied was another manager organization, the National Conference of Personal Managers, which had opposed an earlier draft as well.

“No one has shown me what the problem is (that the Code is intended to address),” said NCOPM president Clinton Billups, Jr. “SAG-AFTRA hasn’t brought any problems to my attention.”

Billups also said it was “a little coincidental” – by which he appeared to mean, “not coincidental at all” – that the union was introducing its Code at the same time NCOPM has a lawsuit pending against the California state law, the Talent Agency Act. (The suit was dismissed last March, but that dismissal is now under appeal to the 9th Circuit.)

The new Code marks SAG-AFTRA’s first foray into regulating managers. In contrast, talent agents have been regulated by SAG-AFTRA (and the DGA and WGA) for many years, and such regulation is detailed and mandatory, not voluntary.

“This Code of Ethics and Conduct was conceived and executed by our members,” said Zino Macaluso, national director and senior counsel of the union’s newly-renamed Professional Representatives department (formerly the Agency Relations department). “SAG-AFTRA looks forward to establishing a closer, mutually beneficial relationship with this community to advance the needs of all concerned.”

A union source told THR that the Agency department frequently received calls relating to problems with managers, but had had no way to address such issues.

“Today marks a great step forward in honest and ethical talent representation,” said manager Gerry Pass of Chrome Artists Management. “This is SAG-AFTRA’s recognition of the vital work that managers do on behalf of actors, while at the same time we see all talent managers held to a higher standard. This is truly exciting.”

“The number of benefits we can offer personal managers listed with us is significant and meaningful.  We hope interested personal managers will examine the Code and ask questions about both the process and the benefits of affiliation,” said Macaluso.

The Code does not, and is not intended to, interfere with any future or existing relationships between members and their managers who are not signatory to the Code, nor does it create a conflict with the union’s two franchised agency agreements.

A copy of the Personal Manager Code of Ethics and Conduct can be viewed online. In addition, both TMA and NCOPM have their own codes of ethics.
TMA... http://www.talentmanagers.org/TMA2011_ethics.php
NCOPM... http://ncopm.com/about/ncopm-code-ethics/

Source....  HR

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SAG-AFTRA Commercials Proposals to Focus on Wages, P&H

Meanwhile, there are no concrete developments in merging the two sets of pension and health plans.

Saturday’s SAG-AFTRA board meeting was memorialized by only a summary press release, but The Hollywood Reporter has learned some details about a key subject at the meeting: the bargaining package that the union will present at upcoming negotiations with the advertising industry.

That package will include proposals for:
* annual wage increases, rather than the triennial schedule that has been the norm;
* a significant increase in pension and health contributions, which are currently at a percentage rate that’s lower than what motion picture and television producers and studios pay; and
* changes related to Internet commercials.
The package was approved virtually unanimously Saturday, with only about two "no" votes.

Negotiations begin Feb. 14, with SAG-AFTRA co-president Roberta Reardon serving as chair of the negotiating committee. National executive director David White is chief negotiator, while assistant national executive director for contracts Ray Rodriguez and associate national executive director Mathis Dunn are co-lead negotiators.

According to a source, the negotiations also will focus on moving all television commercial work to the SAG commercial agreement, which is largely the case already. The AFTRA document is virtually identical, but the choice of contracts determines whether pension and health contributions go to the SAG P&H plan or the AFTRA Health & Retirement fund.

They have not announced any concrete progress toward unifying their respective P&H/H&R plans. Members continue to fail to qualify for health coverage or pension credits, sometimes falling short of necessary thresholds by just a few hundred dollars.

According to a statement released by the union, “The trustees of [the two plans] ... continue formal communications regarding the issue of reciprocity and, ultimately, merger between the plans, and discussions are progressing between the two organizations.”

Read More... http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sag-aftra-commercials-proposals-focus-417724