Actor fatigue on film and television sets in Canada is also discussed in a subsidiary letter in the new IAP. Under the new agreement, at the end of the working day, performers can now prove with a producer that they are too tired to go home, and it is up to the manufacturer to provide the actor with alternative means to return home. Examples include moving to a hotel room, transporting to a nearby transit stop or travelling home. ACTRA National President David Sparrow (pictured) said many of the changes introduced in the new PPI were the result of the work done by ACTRA and others during work on the Canadian Code of Conduct for Creative Industries. In addition, the new IAP provides for a 9% increase in the rate over the three-year term of the new deal, as well as an increase in employment opportunities for performers by completing the “Background Performer Count”. “Fatigue is a huge problem on our devices. Not only with respect to catastrophic failures, such as someone falling asleep at the wheel or someone falling off scaffolding, but also that their ability to do their best work is compromised when they are too tired,” Sparrow said. Negotiations on the new agreement lasted nine days in November between ACTRA, CMPA and AQPM, with 85.8% of ACTRA members voting in favour of the new three-year IAP, which will come into force on 1 January 2019. “This is an absolutely positive step forward in our collective work to try to reduce harassment on our sets, shift the culture on our sets to a culture with more respect and less harassment,” he added. “The positive reason we have made with respect to the harassment issues and the positive dialogue that has emerged from both parties is probably the lasting legacy of this round of contract negotiations, and I think it will help advance the culture across the industry,” Sparrow said. ACTRA voted to ratify a new Independent Production Agreement (IAP), with the introduction of a series of new measures and provisions to prevent harassment, speak out in the workplace and improve the protection of weary service providers. “The work we`ve done in the sector has even started to go beyond what our [current] contract was talking about, so when we met with CMPA and AQPM, we found that they were very open to discussions about changes in the contract that would bring some of these [code of conduct] agreements,” he said.
Among the measures introduced are new provisions which stipulate that hearings can no longer take place in private between a member of the production and an interpreter or in a hotel room. New provisions will also be introduced around nudity to ensure that it is based on approval and that the actor has an appropriate warning and opportunity to participate in the discussions, Sparrow said.