Sharing of Information Required by WGA Franchise Agreement for Historic Agencies to Play a Key Role in Film and Television Contract Negotiations

The WGA’s historic victory in its epic lawsuit to reform the talent agency business is expected to pay “unprecedented” dividends in upcoming film and television deal negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers.

Restrictions on packaging costs and ownership of production companies received the most press coverage during the Guild’s two-year battle with the major agencies, which ended two years ago this month when WME became the last of the major agencies to agree to the Guild’s terms .

But the new franchise agreement’s requirement that agencies share employment information about their writer clients could be even more important in the guild’s upcoming contract negotiations, which are set to begin March 20. with invoices, business notices, contracts and statements of fees and brokerage commissions.

The WKV has long had access to members’ contracts, but the new franchise agreement now provides the guild with a wealth of additional employment data and compensation trends.

“The sharing of information is one of the three pillars of our agency campaign,” the guild said in a summary of the successes it had with the agencies. “The sharing of information is essential to advance the interests of authors, both individually and collectively.

“The information provided by the agency will enable the Guild to identify and evaluate industry trends in the employment of writers in an unprecedented manner, which will assist the Guild in negotiating the MBA (Minimum Basic Agreement) and authors and their representatives will provide important override information. ,” the guild added.

The WGA negotiates minimum wages for writers, known as “scale”, but agents negotiate the scale for their clients, and that information is now in the hands of the guild – a powerful new tool for the guild to show if total compensation is rising or not reduce.

“The Guild already uses the information provided by our agency partners to systematically track payments and collect interest on late or unpaid writers,” the WGA’s summary said, noting that thousands of dollars in interest on overdue payments use information, provided by the agency.