VERY VERY IMPORTANT NEWS FOR FILM INDUSTRY EMPLOYEES

The Maharashtra government has formulated Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the entertainment, advertising and audio industries to regulate wages, payment for overtime, gratuity, provident fund and insurance.

The government will also set up a portal for complaints and their redressal. All businesses in the entertainment, advertising and music industries will be registered. The names of all workers will also be registered.

It will be binding on the owners of film studios and producers or agencies and the contractors providing workers, to follow the 25-point SOPs which will apply to each and every member of the said industries.

The SOPs mandate that all payments towards salaries will be made by the seventh day of every month, steady increments will be given to employees working in organisations with a size larger than 1,000, housing allowance will be given to employees of firms with employees more than 50, bonuses of at least 15 days’ salary in a year will be given to all employees if the organisation employs more than 10 persons, and where work is given to employees on the demand of the owner/producer.

The government has said that each employee will sign a direct contract with the employer for the duration of the work, and there will be no involvement of middlemen for such contracts. There are SOPs for employing children and for addressing sexual harassment complaints by employees too.

A separate committee will be set up for redressal of complaints. The committee will be under the chairmanship of the director of the Maharashtra Film, Stage and Cultural Development Corporation Ltd. (Film City, Goregaon, Bombay). A resolution to this effect was issued on February 14.