Many members who work through their own limited companies have run up against an issue with furloughing themselves for the PAYE portion of their income, because their accountants have set up an annual scheme rather than a monthly one.

HMRC have clarified their advice to say that these people can furlough themselves as long as their accountant submitted an RTI before 19th March 2020 for income in the 19-20 tax year.

Members who do qualify should speak to their accountant, as it appears it may be necessary to call in to HMRC & over-ride the system manually. We’ll share more information about that when we have it.

The HMRC info is here (scroll down to to the heading ‘Company directors with an annual pay period’): https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme

The relevant text says:

Those paid annually are eligible to claim, as long as they meet the relevant conditions. This includes being notified to HMRC on an RTI submission on or before 19 March 2020, which relates to a payment of earnings in the 19/20 tax year. The requirement for there to be payment of earnings in the 19/20 tax year applies for any employee being claimed for under the scheme, irrespective of how frequently they are paid (e.g. weekly, fortnightly or monthly). This will be relevant for those on an annual pay period if the last payment notified to RTI was before 5 April 2019 and no further payments were notified until after 19 March 2020.

An employer can make their claim in anticipation of an imminent payroll run, at the point they run their payroll or after they have run their payroll.

The Branch voted recently to reschedule the Annual General Meeting to 11am on Tuesday 16th June, and it will take place on Zoom. This is the meeting where we elect the committee who help to run the Branch and make decisions on policy when it’s not possible to consult the entire membership. The branch is a democracy & it’s important that the committee genuinely represents the membership – so please turn up & vote!

Engagement from members has increased substantially since the lockdown – which is great to see – and we’d like to encourage people to get more involved with representing the interests of the camera department within the union, by standing for election to the committee.

You don’t need any special skills or experience – just the desire to make things better for everyone in the department, and an attitude that says, if there’s a job to be done, it might as well be done by me!

The committee ‘posts’ that will be elected at the meeting are listed below – if you have any questions about them please contact info@camerabranch.org.uk. The branch usually holds four committee meetings & four general meetings per year, although naturally the current situation has meant a few more meetings than usual. The committee are all busy working crew-members who volunteer their own time, so don’t let the idea that you’ll be too busy to come to all the meetings put you off – it’s rare for the whole committee to be able to attend any meeting, and it’s possible to share a post with someone else to increase the chance that one of you will be able to make it.

Posts labelled * are currently vacant, or expected to fall vacant at the AGM – but all posts are up for election, you’re not limited to standing for one that’s empty.

Chair
Vice Chair
Secretary
Vice Secretary
Branch Treasurer*

Officers:

Branch Membership (and Recruitment) Officer
Branch Equality, Inclusion & Diversity Officer
Branch Communications Officer (website, social media) *
Branch Climate and Sustainability Officer
Branch Health & Safety Officer*
London Production Division Representative
Young Member’s (under 35) Divisional Sub-committee Representative

Sector Rapporteurs:

Branch Advertising Representative
Branch Entertainment Representative*
Branch Factual Representative
Branch Film Representative*
Branch Low-Budget Representative
Branch Outside Broadcast Representative
Branch Training & Standards Representative*
Branch TV Drama Representative

Grade Rapporteurs:

Cinematographers Representative
Camera Operators Representative
DITs Representative
Focus Representative
Loaders Representative
Playback Representative
Script Supervisors Representative
Stills Representative
Trainees Representative

Hope to see you there!

This is from Paul Evans, the BECTU official who looks after all the London Production Division craft branches:

Hi all,

Here’s the briefing that has gone to MP’s, the BFI, the BFC and CIF to help us with our continued lobbying efforts.

Tom Railton, (Bectu/Prospect’s political officer) has been heavily involved with this work. In addition to this, Spencer MacDonald has been talking to the British Film Council and the Head of Bectu Philippa Childs has been involved in discussions with the Creative Industries Federation and the BFI Covid-19 task force.

Yesterday, Philippa took part in another call with the Creative Industries Federation and a couple of Treasury officials. Later this afternoon she has a further call with the BFI Task Force that will involve DCMS officials and Mike Clancy (Prospect General Secretary) also has a call involving different Sectors with BEIS.

We are also inputting data from our surveys to all of these bodies and others to help with getting the message across that more must be done to help freelancers working in the Sector. As you will know, progress appears to be slow but I think we’re possibly expecting more on the SEISS over the next few days, in line with the proposals we’re suggesting in the attached paper.

However even good progress will only potentially solve *some* of the many issues our members are experiencing so we must keep up the pressure.

A reminder too that the Film and TV Charity/BFI Emergency Support Fund (supported by Netflix, the BBC and others) is now open for applications but only between 8-22 April and that the Charity is also offering repayable grants of up to £2k grants for freelancers and that scheme opens on 15 April.

Again, we couldn’t do any of this without the really dedicated feedback loops along with the ideas that have come from our reps and members. Philippa has asked me to pass on her thanks to everyone who is helping us to make this case as loudly as we can…

Once again, the briefing document is here.

From BECTU:

The coronavirus crisis has highlighted just how exposed and precarious the working lives of people who work in the arts, theatre, live events, film, broadcasting and TV have become.

It is time for workers across these industries to come together and work on ‘A New Deal’ – to be clear that many of us will only be able to stay in our industries if the employers are prepared to make it more sustainable for us to do so.

This means:

• greater security
• fairer hours, rates, working terms and conditions
• dignity at work – a change in management style so that workers are able to work in environments where they are respected and valued for the work that they contribute.

Bectu will campaign across the creative industries for A ‘New Deal’ for freelancers and precarious workers – a change to the industry where employment relationships are no longer as one-sided, and where these workers can expect reasonable protections from the hazards of precarious working.

Over the coming weeks, we will be consulting our members, both directly, and through their branches. We will be doing online consultations as well as online branch meetings that will allow members to participate directly.

Ultimately, if the workers in our industries can agree what they are asking for, and stick together to insist that employers take our demands seriously, we can change our industries – permanently – for the better.

Our ability to bring about radical change is dependent upon how effectively our union can help people to stick together, and we are urging everyone in the industry to get involved now.

Take part in our ThoughtExchange on the changes that are needed as part of this ‘New Deal’: https://my.thoughtexchange.com/#199571178/hub

BECTU made a submission to the Treasury on Monday 30th March to make clear the ways in which Film & TV freelancers are falling through the cracks of the government’s coronavirus-related support schemes, and to suggest changes that would help.

Please note – also from BECTU: “since this letter our ‘ask’ on PAYEs has definitely developed a lot, and we’re into a lot more detail about how we help the Treasury solve the problem (the Treasury actually want to give workers the money, we think. They just can’t think of a fair/un-fraudulent way of doing so and we’re giving them all of our ideas on this….”

You can read the submission here.

This letter went out today from BECTU to the 100s of production company contacts provided by members on Sunday. Well done team ✊ #AllForOneAndOneForAll