Messages

31

The Hardline / Reporting violations

« on: Sep 17, 2004, 01:10 am »

I've never had this happen before, and I'm kind of at a loss.  I know we all do this for the love of theatre, and all of us have "let things slide" in order to get the show up at least once or twice.  This is especially true of smaller equity houses.

But this is ridiculous.

There are violations aplenty on this particular show, and all of them are because of the producing organization, and, namely, the producer himself.  At first, there was good faith that these small things would get fixed, so I "let things slide" in the beginning.  Now the "good" faith is gone, and we must count on ourselves to get the job done, which forces us to violate our own rules so that the show will happen (actors doing their own laundry, myself and other actors finding props and repairing set pieces for safety purposes, etc.).  Basically, I have come to believe that this company should never have been granted the right to use AEA contracts, because they clearly are nowhere near AEA-caliber.

So, my question is, when and how do I report these violations to the union?  And how do I do so without reporting our own personal violations as actors and SM?  And this may sound stupid, but my SM weekly report only allows me to report violations for actors, why isn't there a form for producer violations?  Because that's what I need!  Any advice for how to blow the whistle here without hurting myself or my actors in the process?

32

The Hardline / When do you claim overtime?

« on: Sep 17, 2004, 12:41 am »

I say it's time when it is required by the union, and when there is an alternative other than working such long hours.  Here's a "for instance."  

On my last show, the AEA contract called for additional compensation during tech week automatically, so the "maximum hours" for the SM don't exactly exist that particular week.  But when I was asked to come in on my day off, I made it clear that I would charge those hours as overtime, because if the schedule had been arranged differently I would otherwise be getting a day off.  Because the situation could have been avoided (and I was in many other ways being taken advantage of), I felt it necessary to report overtime.

I've also worked in situations where the company really wants to go "by the book," and expects you to report overtime - sometimes they even budget for it.  But on the flip side, smaller companies can continue to take advantage of you if you don't report overtime (which is why the rule is there in the first place).  In one scenario (not me, but a friend), a green AEA SM was hired who didn't know the rules, and when her more experienced ASM reported overtime, the ASM was told not to report for her scheduled call time, and the newer SM had to pick up the slack.  That's a prime example of why overtime is necessary, and a rule.  

If the company is in a financial jam, and no one feels abused, then maybe it's a judgement call.  But it sounds like this particular company, with two separate teams of SM's, is not hurting financially to be able to compensate you for your work.  
Also, I do not believe that our being paid more than the actors has anything to do with overtime - I don't report the extra hours I spend doing paperwork every night into my maximum rehearsal hours - I consider that alone to be enough justification for us being paid more than the actors, and staying longer during tech doesn't even include that same paperwork time, so why shouldn't we be entitled to extra pay?