The Television’s film production and broadcasting business is of national interest. Its product called television programs, creates a social impact and national relevance. The process of creation and delivery of such product is a work of fine arts and advance technology. It includes atypical work arrangement and working conditions perceived to be affecting the occupational health and safety of its manpower.
Most of its workers consist of highly skilled professionals and special talents. In the light of protecting the best interest of the workers, DOLE issued on 26 April 2016 the Labor Advisory No. 4, Series of 2016, entitled “Working Condition in the Movie and Television Industry” to ensure the companies compliance with labor standards, occupational safety, health standards and better working conditions for all the workers and talents, including children and elderly. In line with this, the DOLE created a Special Assessment and Visit to Establishment (SAVE) team to understand the peculiarities of work arrangement and work conditions in the in movie and television to formulate a specific guideline for the industry.
This paper is an initial attempt to describe the business process of Philippine television industry and its peculiar work arrangement and working conditions. To understand the impact of the DOLE Advisory to the industry, a round table discussion(RTD) was convened on 23 November 2016 at Bay Leaf Hotel, which was attended by five television networks’ management and workers’ representatives. The results and discussions includes the descriptions and structures of televisions business process and an initial profiling of its work arrangements and working conditions. This paper also attempt to describe the relevant issues of the TV networks with the recent DOLE policy. The issues that crop-up during the discussion deals with the following specific policy areas: a) coverage; b) work arrangement; c) talent fees/wages, d) working hours; and e) and the need to regulate or liberalize the industry. Likewise, it attempts to suggest some policy options in the following areas, a) coverage, b) work arrangement, c) working conditions. In conclusion, this paper suggests to adopt four steps way forward for the formulation of specific guidelines for the movie and television industry: 1) speed technological changes and advancement of movie and television; 2) emerging behavioral and work pattern of the new generation; c) new individual contract (IC) work arrangement and d) the intricacies and uniqueness of arts execution in film production.
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Title: In Focus - Work Arrangement and Working Conditions in Television’s Film Production and Broadcast Industry: Issues for Social Dialogue
Researcher: Celia V. Cabadonga