The audiovisual sector in the face of the COVID-19 emergency

The Union of Actors and Actresses, the Union of Audiovisual and Cinematographic Technicians of the Spanish State (TACE) and the Screenwriters Union (ALMA) have released a statement in which they analyze the situation that the audiovisual sector is going through in the face of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

He audiovisual production sector, framed within Culture, has a peculiarity in its productive cycle that is inherent to it and is projected in all its phases, intermittency, which is causing a series of especially pernicious consequences in employment.

The structuring of audiovisual production into projects with an origin and end date and, in the most long-lasting cases, into seasons, converts the work of those employed in it into a job that always has an end date linked to a shoot or recording.

This special configuration of work in the audiovisual sector, which was recognized by the Cortes Generales with the approval of the Statute of the Artist unanimously by the legislative power, must serve to correct the regulations that prevent technical, creative and acting personnel from having their own union representation whose cause is the duration of the contracts linked to intermittency.

Coinciding with the coronavirus pandemic, the Union of Actors and Actresses, he Union of Audiovisual and Cinematographic Technicians of the Spanish State (TACE) and the Writers Guild (ALMA) They have released a statement in which they put in black and white some demands from the sector that cushion the impact of this crisis.

With the extraordinary measures approved to face the situation derived from the COVID-19 The aim was to protect in a special way people in vulnerable situations, workers and the self-employed and companies and to guarantee, as far as possible, the normalization of the labor and productive market once the situation is put to an end1.

Among these measures, however, many of the circumstances of people who work in the audiovisual and performing arts do not fit automatically or naturally, and it is necessary to create the appropriate mechanisms to make it possible for them to also be properly cared for in a scenario that harms them in a peculiar way: films or series that will not be possible to produce or release on the scheduled date and that cannot be simply postponed until the end of the emergency period; calendars and works on hold that cannot be moved to an already fully scheduled season; agendas and work interrupted due to unavailability of their technical and acting casts.

All this even before assessing the economic impact that production companies and chains will have to face, which could lead to the discarding of many of the committed projects for which the appropriate contracts had not been concluded that could demonstrate the connection and the work or professional expectation of the creative, artistic and technical staff.

As the unions highlight, the only reference in RD-L 8/2020 to culture is made in relation to the general drop in demand. There is no mention, however, of the supply crisis in this audiovisual field, whose demand during the health emergency has increased to very high levels on television and platforms, which could continue supplying series, films and programs if they could continue with their production.

At this time when the population is subject to mobility restrictions, one of the activities that is proving most necessary is access to cultural works broadcast through analogue channels, networks and digital platforms to homes.

The limitation of movements and meetings have made filming, the staging of live works or the recording of entertainment programs impossible, which in turn has led to the interruption or cessation of contracts that have not been contemplated with their specificities in the extraordinary regulation of ERTE, a situation that needs to be corrected.

If the purpose of the emergency measures is mainly to resume normality in the labor markets once the causes that caused it have ended, the professional audiovisual sectors require a series of specific and appropriate measures both to the intermittency and its repercussions on the hiring conditions, which prevent a very substantial part of our groups from benefiting from the measures contemplated in RD 8/2020, of March 17.

For all these reasons, the representative entities of the audiovisual workers ask the Government and the Ministry of Culture and Sports to take into account the current and specific circumstances of the audiovisual sector, circumstances that can take it to a point of no return, and adopt appropriate measures to what has been one of the engines of the Spanish economy in recent years, with measures such as:

• Those fixed-term contracts linked to a period or a television season that have been interrupted by the health emergency must be included in the treatment of contract suspension (ERTE). The current regulation allows their termination without further processing, despite the fact that the reason why they have ended derives from the extraordinary measures, which prevent filming and productions from being carried out.
• Las medidas aprobadas por el Gobierno, que esperamos que se vayan adaptando a la casuística que se está poniendo de manifiesto, deberán plantear la manera de incluir aquellas situaciones análogas producidas durante la semana previa a la declaración del estado de alarma, durante la cual ya se produjeron muchos despidos –en parte por no haberse articulado aún alternativas a pesar de que el escenario iba tomando forma—, lo que ha dejado en desprotección a muchas trabajadoras y trabajadores que no pueden acogerse a las medidas adoptadas. Por lo tanto, debemos exigir que, cuando efectivamente haya circunstancias que revelen que, de haberse aprobado antes las medidas de emergencia, habrían sido aplicables, se asimile la situación en todos los niveles posibles.
• It is necessary to adopt measures that provide security to production companies and networks regarding the reestablishment of their activity, but it is essential that these measures be linked to the maintenance of contracts with their staff and with self-employed professionals, whose planning of labor and professional income is being seriously altered by the freezing of negotiations for new productions or for new seasons of consolidated productions (prime time and daily series).

As for the proper procedures To the circumstances and difficulties of the sector, the unions highlight that:

• The channels have not been provided to demonstrate that the terminations of contracts due to the cancellation of filming and productions are the direct result of the exceptional nature of the health situation, depriving people with labor relationships interrupted due to these causes of the social protection that RD 8/2020 seeks to extend to the entire labor fabric.
• The Government must incorporate means so that non-payment of contracts and invoices during the emergency period, and with the time limit determined in accordance with the evolution of the circumstances that have caused it, are presumed to be a consequence of said period, and are protected by any measure taken to safeguard the patrimonial integrity of the affected workers.
• In the case of actors and actresses (who have indisputably recognized their obligated status as employed workers both in article 2.1.e) of the Workers' Statute and in Royal Decree 1435/1985 of August 1 and in the various collective agreements), what is taking place is an indiscriminate adoption of dismissals and contractual suspensions by companies without complying with the guarantees and formal requirements and minimum procedural requirements that the law imposes for such severe and drastic business restructuring measures. In the audiovisual sector, as in the theater sector, workers are being fired verbally and without compensation of any kind; and contractual suspensions are being carried out without guarantees of job retention which, as the weeks go by, will become more hidden dismissals. In the audiovisual sector this also extends, of course, to voice actors and actresses. It is essential to provide legal support and support in a much more specific way and with direct sectoral references to what the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy already provided in points 2.2 and 2.3 of its Guide for action in the workplace in relation to the new Coronavirus, to guarantee the right to salary of actors who have seen their contracts suspended without the slightest guarantee and from the most absolute defenselessness and legal insecurity.
• Offer effective protection to self-employed professionals to be able to continue with their work until the regular reactivation of audiovisual productive activity, and in particular their provision for the collection of copyright, deferred by the prohibition of going to theaters and cinemas and therefore of releasing and putting the works in question on the circuit.
• Clarify whether during the period of temporary sick leave as a self-employed person it is feasible to carry out work that was committed before the emergency situation and proceed to enter amounts for said work.
• Taking into account these circumstances and the profound impact on the situation of artistic and creative personnel, who have seen their employment relationships suspended or canceled in many cases - legitimately or not, apart from the loss of activity that those who carry out artistic and creative activity on their own also endure, it is essential to implement a basic income from which they can benefit to support the most pressing and peremptory needs in a scenario in which productive activity has stopped and offers nothing but uncertainty regarding its resumption.
• Likewise, and as already claimed in the Artist Statute, it is more urgent than ever to adopt fiscal measures in recognition of the intermittency that contribute to calming the current panorama of precariousness: we request the delay in the management of personal income tax for artists, acting, creative and technical personnel, and the consideration of the amounts available to face the payment of the tax corresponding to 2019 as an emergency fund to be used until personal liquidity is available, eliminating any type of sanction for late payment of taxes if the precariousness and the need to have that money to satisfy the basic needs of these people and their families is justified.

The measures for the reactivation of audiovisual activity requested by the Union of Actors and Actresses, the Union of Audiovisual and Cinematographic Technicians of the Spanish State (TACE) and the Screenwriters Union (ALMA) are:

• Availability in the field of culture of guarantees for loans requested by companies and the self-employed.
• Establish sanctions for companies that fail to reestablish suspended labor relations through an ERTE and close the financial year with a result that shows that they could have maintained the workforce at a higher level.
• Maintain special vigilance over the termination and modification of the conditions of contracts in the templates of production companies and audiovisual channels and over the conditions on which said termination has been based.
• Promote similar treatment to staff and, where appropriate, to companies that demand the application of the measures approved after March 14 to those situations that were processed as dismissals due to the end of work. All dismissals linked to construction contracts that have been terminated before the conclusion date due to Covid-19 but in which there is no evidence of the early suspension of said contracts should be studied. Likewise, the case of discontinuous permanent workers whose contract has been suspended due to the interruption of their jobs due to the pandemic must be studied, to avoid possible inequalities with other workers.
• The dialogue with the unions representing workers in the audiovisual sector will remain open with the purpose of receiving and transmitting all relevant information to the affected groups, and to the institutions that must intervene to defend their labor and professional rights with maximum agility.