Following in the footsteps of Toronto spot shop Sparks, The Partners’ Film Company and its affiliates – including Radke Films, Imported Artists, the Directors Film Company and Jolly Roger – have responded to Toronto crews’ request for a pay increase.

Partners’ has increased hour rates by $2 across the board for department heads, seconds and thirds, bringing the hourly rates for those individuals in the electric, grip, props and beauty (makeup, hair and wardrobe) departments up to $32, $30 and $28, respectively. (The exception is sound – Toronto sound men make $36, a $6 premium over what keys in other categories were earning. The boom will receive the $2 increase.)

Ross McLean of Partners’ says this pay raise represents a 6.6% increase and is the first in five years. The Partners’ guidelines crews work under, which came loosely from former union-negotiated contracts, will be revised effective March 1.

Sparks head Andy Crosbie was the first to up the ante on Jan. 1, and at $33, is ahead of the Partners’ offer for keys, and set the bar at $30 for seconds and $28 for thirds, following the same 9-3-2 day rate scheme (after the first nine hours of a shoot day, the standard is time-and-a-half for the next three hours, double for the next two, then it’s triple time).

Part of the new deal from Partners’ and its affiliates is that a 30-minute meal break, ‘at the producer’s discretion,’ is being adopted, with work to resume at the rate in effect before the break.

McLean says several 18-hour shoot days a month are now the norm and the average day is 12 to 14 hours. At the 14-hour mark, this would add $35 per crew member to the bottom line.

McLean says the precedence for this comes from other production centers which have gone this route to prevent losing precious sunlight, and hopefully, to get out a bit earlier. Currently, the one-hour meal break is not a paid break, however, if a producer wishes to call only a half-hour break, all crew members must agree to the switch or else the producer must pay for an hour in order to gain the half-hour shooting time.

Crew members’ (who wish to remain anonymous) reaction to the shorter meal break range from concerns over labor law compliance to utter dismay: ‘The whole thing sucks,’ and ‘Well, that figures.’

The meal breaks at Sparks remain at the standard hour with the meal penalty guideline provision in effect.

As crews are no longer represented by unions in their negotiations with commercial producers, the requests for rate increases came through individual write-in demands advising of new rates (heads were declaring $33), a campaign which was gaining momentum over the past six months.

McLean says of the offer, ‘You can wait until it turns into a war – or turn your accounting department upside down paying everyone a different rate – or you can deal with it. Although our margins have gone down (over the five-year period) it’s time to deal with it.’

On Jan. 1, Partners’ raised its pa rates from $125 to $150 per shoot day. Sparks pas make $125 unless it’s a 14-hour day, then they’re paid for a day-and-a-half, and double for a really long day.

Although Crosbie agrees the days are definitely longer, he says for safety reasons, Sparks shies away from 18-hour days. ‘I’m proud that we did it first,’ says Crosbie of the crew rate increase, adding he’s also an advocate of keeping Toronto successful – which means competitive.

Other commercial production houses have separate and different agreements, with comm.bat films’ (formerly dvla) guidelines also frequently receiving kudos from crew.

Production head Michael Wray says the comm.bat rates are still as they were – $31, $27, $25 – but the deal memo on rates and working conditions created in 1992 is under review. They’re looking at a $2 raise and half-hour breaks.

‘Most communities in North America working with non-signatory crew are looking at a half-hour off the clock,’ says Wray. Responding to the negative reception to shorter meal breaks, Wray understands the ‘it sucks’ sentiment, but says it’s the North American market standard and what they are up against in terms of shoot location competition.

Freelance film technician Dave Derry says of the changes, ‘It’s a dynamic business and it’s bound to change. Generally, nobody likes to have their wage limitations dictated to them, they would like to negotiate. It will be interesting to see what happens with the rest of the industry. It may yet come to a decision to boycott (certain houses).’