- The employer agreed to provide occupation codes, employee’s job title, and wage scale classification name on new hire and promotion offer letters or Personal Service Contracts. This will make it easier for you to review minimum rates, so you know you are getting paid the correct amount, and to ensure accurate contributions to your health and pension fund.
- An additional provision to Sideletter J – Skills Evaluations states that employers must give a reasonable amount of time to complete a skills evaluation and that they should provide a response to those who submitted an evaluation after the hiring or promotion decision has been made. This stipulation aims to stop ghosting and encourage studio leadership to evaluate the necessity and duration of tests before distributing them. This new language is a step toward keeping the employers accountable for their hiring practices and allows for more avenues in which unreasonable tests can be reviewed. Lastly, the AMPTP will send a bulletin to all employers reminding them of these changes and recommendations.
- Another new general provision aims to address grievances about industry experience not being taken into account when classifying new hires. The AMPTP has agreed to distribute a bulletin to all employers providing guidance so that animation workers with significant experience at different studios be classified at the appropriate level of the wage classification. It also advises employers that the Union will bring this issue to the attention of Labor Relations should new employees with significant and comparable journey-level experience be placed in below-journey level classifications. What does this mean? Your experience in comparable positions at other studios should be taken into consideration when determining your wage classification. If employers don’t pay attention, the Union will address the issue with their Labor Relations departments.
- For several contract cycles, the Union has tried to address obsolete classifications and working titles to close hiring loopholes and streamline wage classifications. A provision to address this issue has been in the contract, but since there has never been a time frame for the process, employers have pushed it off. In the tentative agreement, the AMPTP has agreed to set a date to standardize classifications within 90 days of ratification.
- After years of trying, we finally secured Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a 10th paid holiday. Those who already have the holiday off, such as DreamWorks Animation, will now also receive Good Friday as a paid holiday. Also, effective as of Jan. 1, 2023, for holidays not worked, 4% of the employee’s annual straight time earnings will be payable. This increase is up from 3.719%.
- Benefits to on-call employees were increased to 60 hours from 56 hours.
Remember to Call the Hall!
