BROADCAST News The Newsletter for SAG-AFTRA Broadcasters // VOL.2 // ISSUE 2 // SUMMER 2013
NEWS IN BRIEF QUALITY JOURNALISM CAMPAIGN // We’d like to know what you think about quality journalism. What trends or issues are you seeing in your news & broadcast community? Send your observations to broadcast@sagaftra.org LOCALS FORM BSCs // SAG-AFTRA Philadelphia and San Francisco broadcast members have formed local Broadcast Steering Committees. Contact the local for more information on meetings and member participation. NY MEMBERS MENTOR STUDENTS // A two-part mentor program was held for more than 50 New York students interested in careers in broadcasting. The sessions included tips of the trade, the importance of SAG-AFTRA and demo tape critiques. KRON BROADCASTERS REJECT OFFER // Newspersons at KRON4 in San Francisco voted unanimously to reject the latest contract offer by management. Primary reasons for the rejection were equitable compensation, threats to job security and health/retirement benefit concerns. BSC MEETS IN NEW YORK // The SAG-AFTRA Broadcast Steering Committee met in New York City on June 29. UNION PLUS BENEFITS // The AFL-CIO’s Union Privilege program is exclusively for union members. From mortgage programs to lowinterest credit cards to discounts on pet insurance, there’s something for everyone. Go to www.unionplus.org to save!
UNDERSTANDING YOUR PERSONAL SERVICES CONTRACT By Anee Raulerson // Assistant Executive Director, Washington-Mid Atlantic Local
“P
ersonal services contract,” “individual contract,” “key talent agreement” — these are all terms used to describe an employment agreement negotiated between an employer and an individual employee in the broadcast industry. While these agreements are commonplace in the industry, not every employee is offered a personal services contract (PSC), as they are known, and not every employee may want one. When you are presented with a PSC, it is important to understand what the terms of that PSC mean, and it is important to know that your SAG-AFTRA staff is available to assist you in explaining those terms, as well as strategizing with respect to any decisions that you must make regarding your employment. The landscape of PSCs has changed over the years. These agreements once contained terms of employment that the employee was able to negotiate above and beyond the union agreement or company policy, but over time, employers
continued to add one-sided provisions that are more advantageous for them and less so for the employee. A three-year PSC, for instance, may require that the employee stay with the employer for three years, while the employer has the option to terminate the PSC for any reason at one year, 26 weeks or even 13 weeks. In many radio PSCs, there is no guaranteed term for the employee at all. So even though you may be receiving abovescale compensation, there may be no guarantee how long you will receive it.
Many PSCs also contain onerous, restrictive covenants such as lengthy noncompetes, complete restrictions on outside employment, rights of first refusal, where the emWHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT, language ployee agrees to indemnify the employer (sometimes HOWEVER, IS THAT regardless of whether the SAG-AFTRA MEMBERS content provided was approved by your employer), KNOW THAT THEY ARE confidentiality provisions PROTECTED BY ANOTHER and overly broad content ownership provisions that CONTRACT — may even pertain to material THE COLLECTIVE outside of the scope of your
BARGAINING AGREEMENT.
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