The SAG-AFTRA national board on Monday approved its tentative agreement with four major TV broadcast networks and other producers on new Network Television Code master contract.
The board met via video conference in New York and Los Angeles to review the proposed deal and voted to send the contract to the union’s membership for ratification.
Negotiations between the union and the networks and producers concluded on Nov. 14. The contract term runs Nov. 16, 2014, to June 30, 2018. Employment under the Network Television Code generates more than $200 million a year in earnings for covered SAG-AFTRA members.
The code covers SAG-AFTRA’s members on syndicated dramatic programs, daytime serials, variety, quiz, game, reality, talk, news and sports programs. Covered are non-primetime shows including “Good Morning America,” “The View,” “The Price is Right,” “The Young and the Restless,” “Saturday Night Live,” “Dancing With the Stars” and “Late Show With David Letterman.”
The union said that the new network code deal included a compounded 8.7 percent hike in minimums over three years, unification of the SAG and AFTRA TV contracts and improved terms and conditions for productions made for streaming video on demand services such as Netflix and Hulu Plus.
Other provisions of the new contract:
>> An increase in contributions to the AFTRA Health & Retirement Funds of .5 percent, starting in year one;
>> A 36-percent increase to background rehearsal rates in year two, from $11 per hour to $15 per hour, and a 12-percent increase for principal rehearsal rates in year two, from $25 per hour to $28 per hour;
>> Increases in the overtime rate from $37.50 per hour to $42 per hour for principals and $16.50 per hour to $22.50 per hour for background actors;
>> An 8-percent increase in the stand-in rate for non-dramatic programming, increasing from $24 per hour to $25 per hour in year one and from $25 per hour to $26 per hour in year three.