Reality Strikes

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It’s an often-used dramatic formula: When labor union leaders want to make changes to the status quo, they enlist a politician’s help.

Hollywood writers are sticking to that script, so they’ve convinced a state lawmaker to hold hearings on alleged labor abuses in the reality TV industry in downtown Los Angeles on Feb. 1. The hearing was called by state Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, who heads the Labor & Industrial Relations Committee.

Show producers, employees and regulators will be testifying at the hearing, which was scheduled after the Writers Guild of America published a report in November that estimates production companies owe $100 million in overtime pay to workers on reality shows.

The hearing at the Ronald Reagan State Building will occur three months into a strike that has paralyzed Hollywood. While the main conflict is over residual payments for downloaded movies and TV shows, the WGA also wants to unionize reality shows. The Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, representing the studios in the negotiations, has asked the guild to withdraw this demand. The AMPTP declined to comment on the Feb. 1 hearing.

According to Tracy Fairchild, a spokeswoman in Migden’s Sacramento office, the WGA has “been very supportive of the hearing,” since the guild’s report inspired the event. “But we need to make clear we are not involved in any of their unionizing activities. We can’t be it would be inappropriate.”

When asked how the hearings relate to the strike, Fairchild responded: “We don’t go there.”

But Jonathan Handel, a labor attorney at Troy & Gould in Century City, believes the report and the subsequent hearing were part of the WGA’s pre-strike contingency plan.

“The purpose is to take shots at the studios. I don’t think it’s particularly productive, but the strategy is to increase the pressure for reality jurisdiction and use that leverage in the next round of negotiations,” he said. “But it doesn’t feel like a well-thought-out strategy. A hearing in front of a state senator won’t translate into a victory at the negotiating table.”


Political reason?

An attorney who represents producers and production companies notes the timing of the hearing.

“I do think there’s a political reason for this happening on Feb. 1,” said Ivy Kagan Bierman, partner at the firm Loeb & Loeb in Los Angeles. “The WGA has been trying to orga

nize reality television for a very long time, both at the bargaining table and with independent production companies. They have failed in their efforts. It’s part of a bigger strategy: If you won’t make a deal with us to cover reality television, we’ll make things very tough for you.”

The dispute over reality television workers centers on the definition of “writer.” While reality shows may seem unscripted, there is a degree of post-production work that could include “writing” comparable to what is done on traditional TV dramas and comedies.

John Kosinski, political director for the WGA, sees a connection between the hearing and the strike.

“First, this demonstrates what happens when workers in the entertainment industry don’t have a union,” he said. “Second, the studios have said, ‘Reality TV is going to be a strike-breaker.’ I hope this hearing is an eye-opener to people when they see the kinds of conditions for these workers. To try to use this issue to break the strike is unwise and unfair.”

Fairchild said the hearing will take place in three parts. First, employees in the reality TV industry will testify about work conditions, followed by union representatives discussing their experiences. Finally, production companies and payroll companies will testify.

Also, officers from the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement will discuss cases and settlements. In one recent case, highlighted on the WGA Web site, a former reality worker was awarded $35,000 in overtime and interest.

“We’ve had a couple dozen cases go before the DLSE or settle before going to the DLSE process,” Kosinski said. “Our hope is the state will use all its resources to adjudicate these cases and give workers the wages and working conditions according to law.”

In such cases, Bierman of Loeb & Loeb believes that the WGA finds former reality TV workers and encourages them to claim they are owed unpaid overtime. One of her production company clients received two such overtime citations only a week before the scheduled hearings, with no chance for postponement.

“I believe the DLSE wants to have a record of those hearings and decisions before Feb. 1,” she said. “My clients are being adversely impacted by the politics involved right now.”


Long workdays

The WGA report, titled “Harsh Reality,” found 91 percent of reality writers receive no overtime pay although they work an average of 55 hours per week. By comparison, writers on network TV shows work about 60 hours per week with no overtime, but at a much higher pay scale.

“It’s clear there are widespread wage and hour violations in the reality TV industry,” said the WGA’s Kosinski.

Handel acknowledged that when people become TV writers, they accept the condition of long workdays.

“The difference is that writers on scripted TV shows make a lot of money,” he said. “For this thinly written stuff, they don’t get paid a lot of money.”

He once asked some game show writers about their lunch breaks; the response was they didn’t even get dinner breaks.

“So the work conditions are pretty bad on some of these shows,” Handel said.

Job titles present another dilemma. The WGA found that only 3 percent of “reality writers” actually held the title of writer. Instead, they were called story editor, story producer or field producer.

As such, Bierman explained, “producers are widely recognized as exempt from overtime because the services they render are artistic in nature.”

The study found that the workers on the reality shows were entitled to overtime pay based on their job descriptions.

Handel said that the WGA will not be able to organize reality show workers.

“Pigs can sprout wings, but the writers still won’t get reality coverage,” he said. “It’s never, ever going to happen. The reason is that right now scripted TV is being replaced by reality. If the guild could choke off the supply of reality, there would be nothing on TV except news and sports. The studios simply can’t let that happen.”

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