State Senate May Hold Second SAG/ATA Hearing

by Roger Armbrust

The California Senate's select committee on talent agencies is considering another hearing regarding the stalemate between the Screen Actors Guild and Association of Talent Agents. In a June report filed with the ATA, the organization's lobbyist Barry Brokaw said the select committee "continues to follow with interest the relationship between actors and agents given the lack of a master franchise agreement. No legislation has been introduced or contemplated at this time to fill the void beyond the protections that exist in the California Labor Code, but Sen.[John] Burton and his staff have indicated their interest in holding a committee hearing on the subject matter later this summer." Burton is president pro tem of the California Senate.

The committee's interest ranks high in importance to both actors and agents because?with the 60-year-old SAG/ATA franchise agreement no longer in existence?state law is the only regulator of the actor/agent relationship in California.

Dave Sebeck, a press spokesman for Sen. Burton, told Back Stage at press time that Burton was still interested in holding a summer hearing but that he had yet to set a date.

Burton's panel held a hearing on the franchise pact in fall 2001. At that time SAG told the committee it wanted the California Legislature to alter the state Talent Agency Act to better police and heavily penalize agents and personal managers who violate the law. Also, the Guild challenged the legality of a waiver that talent agents had proposed to their franchise agreement with SAG. This year SAG members voted down the proposed new franchise pact, leaving SAG no way to directly monitor actor/agent contracts and only state law to depend on.

Burton also was keeping an eye on the SAG/ATA issue as the proposed new franchise agreement went to SAG members for a vote earlier this year. In late March he roundly criticized SAG's analysis of the ATA's general service agreement (GSA)?a contract agents formed to use if the franchise agreement wasn't approved. Burton wrote the Guild, saying that a "GSA Fact Sheet" that SAG had published created "false impressions." Melissa Gilbert, SAG's national president, wrote him back, saying "we obviously must agree to disagree on our respective interpretations of the meaning and importance of the approved general service agreement?."

As SAG and the ATA attempted late last year to get back to the bargaining table, the ATA moved ahead on the GSA, receiving approval to use it from the California Department of Labor. Following SAG members' defeat of the franchise agreement, SAG has cautioned members to let the Guild review copies of GSAs that agents offer actors to assure they include proper protections.