Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

To put it simply in the short time available, producers are happy enough with the status quo. They make actors, performers and writers sign buy-out contracts, but that is not good for actors and performers.

Similarly, the fixed-term workers directive and legislation are very clear. Companies cannot abuse the successive use of fixed-term contracts. Workers who work on several of these acquire by law contracts of indefinite duration. In other words, through their service having worked across multiple productions it must be legally acknowledged that they are employees. The producers are refusing to do that and are hiding behind the designated activity company, DAC, even though the producer company gets the money. That means the clock goes back to zero for every crew member after each production. It is as if they have never worked in the industry. Even if they worked in the industry for 20 years, they have no rights. After each production, they may or may not be re-employed which is an abuse of the directive, as is forcing the performers to sign away their intellectual property rights and royalties.

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