Reforming Tax and Crew Work Hours

Tax reforms - oh dear.

I can’t work out why tax systems all over the world don’t target the money, rather than targeting people and their efforts. It’s the money Inland Revenue departments are chasing, so why not just catch some of it as it moves? Is that a ‘capital transaction tax’? (Or a ‘turnover tax’? Ed.) All the computers are there, a whole network already in place for tracking money as it moves; it should be simple enough to extract a proportion for the purposes of governing and providing social services. Surely that would be much simpler to run than the convoluted systems we use currently? Cheaper too, less bureaucracy, and bugger-all paperwork involved.

GST! Don’t get me started on GST, grrrr!

Following on from our late Christmas edition, I’d like to comment on the relationship theme that ran through much of the mag.

Perhaps that relationship thing is why we like to employ our rellies in this game. It seems to work: if you’re good mates with your workmates, it should help to make for good working relationships. Having said that, I rarely get to work with my boys on set; though I have worked with my daughter-in-law on three feature films to date, two of which she gaffered.

A comment on Mark Gillings’ suggestion that crew might compromise on O/T, “asking for prompt payment in return for a cheaper overtime rate.” I realise the comment was made in the spirit of compromise and co-operation, and I don’t knock the thrust of Marks’ column at all - nor do I knock the notion of goodwill between crew and production, an essential ingredient for any smooth-running shoot. Hey, we are all in this together.

But I firmly believe there are some areas in which there should be no compromise; and two of those areas are turnaround time ‘penalty’ payments and overtime ‘penalty’ payments. I use the old-fashioned term ‘penalty payment’ to illustrate the intent not to gain extra money but to curtail and control the amount of extra time people work in their day.

Sure our rates are negotiable - but overtime and turnaround time should not be negotiable. Or should I say more correctly, your overtime and broken turnaround payments have already been negotiated, and are outlined in the Blue Book. Some time in the not too distant future, the Blue Book will be renegotiated; and my hope is that our overtime payment arrangements can be laid out more simply and clearly.

I also think there should be absolute limits to how many hours anyone can work in any one day, or in any one week.

$$$$$$$$$ or zzzzzzzzz - is that the question?

As you may have guessed, you won’t find me working on a ’48 hour competition’ film. Of course I’ve been there, done that, shot on through the night to get it done while you’ve got a crew together on a weekend, and thoroughly enjoyed it - though it can be difficult not to get grumpy when you’re tired off your face. But if you’re on a ‘real’ paying job, we do need to have a few basic rules in place - and some of those basic rules are to do with O/T and turnaround time.

… AlBol