The year in review: Entertainment, Crew & Sport
For the Entertainment, Crew and Sport section of MEAA, 2015 was a year of continuing growth, engaging national campaigns, and for some worksites, it brought their first union agreement.
2015 saw significant victories in work sites around the country. MEAA continues to improve, expand and extend collective bargains in areas where the union has a presence and deliver reasonable pay increases and maintain or improve conditions. Namely, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Opera Australia, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Sydney Theatre Company and Perth Theatre Trust to name a few.
Congratulations to members and staff reps who worked tirelessly to negotiate improvements for their workplaces with a first ever MEAA workplace agreement, including the Gold Coast Arts Centre, Sydney’s BridgeClimb and the Perth Theatre Trust.
Freelance musicians and freelance screen technicians will now be covered on their way to and from work thanks to the introduction of MEAA’s Public Liability Insurance/ Professional Indemnity Insurance.
MEAA engaged with members on a number of major national campaigns including the Cricket World Cup campaign that saw a delegation go all the way to Canberra to discuss keeping broadcast technician jobs local with the Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Brendan O’Connor.
Our Save Our Stories campaign fought changes to the visa rules that regulate the number of foreign actors and crew who can temporarily work in Australia, and saw the delivery of over 1000 member selfies and more than 1000 member stories to Parliament.
Our Real Rates campaign will continue into the new year to fight to increase the market rates for screen crew to meet the cost of living and secure a prosperous future for the Australian screen industry.
The ECS section has also directly campaigned for Entertainment Act, location offset increase and portable long service leave.
In a major milestone for the section, we created the Australian Basketball Association (ABA) to represent professional basketball players, established to further, protect and advance the rights, interests and welfare of Australian basketball players.
The ECS section continues to promote a safe working environment through national safety laws, and the election of and training of health and safety representatives.
A major issue facing members of our industry is the impact of working long hours, excessive overtime and fatigue, particularly in film and TV. Further issues related to mental health and depression is being examined through Entertainment Assist surveys that will inform future safety campaigns.
Claims made by MEAA’s industrial and organising teams on behalf of members resulted in over $2 million being returned in the 2014-15 financial year, twice as much as 2013-14. Claims recovered included $488,542 for members of the Entertainment, Crew & Sport section. Included in this was the union’s intervention on the film Red Billabong to ensure crew were paid outstanding wages.
These significant achievements and highlights during the year have contributed to higher workplace engagement and activism, resulting in growth of the section’s membership.
