Hollywood’s Covid protocols will expire on May 12, as well as the vaccination mandate, which was previously given by producers as a required condition of employment. These protocols will cease for all productions except those that were implemented prior to May 12, which can continue to apply for the remainder of the production or the season, according to Deadline.
It was first enacted across Hollywood production studios in September of 2020 because of an agreement between the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) and Hollywood’s unions including SAG-AFTRA, the DGA, IATSE, and the Teamsters. Protocols amongst these unions allowed their productions to resume after an initial industrywide lockdown in the earlier days of the pandemic. Originally they were meant to expire on April 30,2021, but the mandates continued to be extended on more than one up to twelve occasions. One of the instances occurred in June 2021 when producers were given “the option to implement mandatory vaccination policies for casts and crew in Zone A on a production-by-production basis.” Zone A, where unmasked actors work, is the most restrictive of the safe work zones on sets, according to Deadline.
The protocols were most recently extended in January. In a statement that was issued today by the AMPTP, the entertainment industry’s official collective bargaining representative, it was said that “The Return to Work Agreement, set to expire on April 1, 2023, will now will continue to remain in effect through May 11, 2023. As of May 12, 2023, the Return to Work Agreement will terminate.
“The date coincides with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ end to the federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency declaration on May 11.
“All employees shall have a total of five (5) days of temporary COVID-19 paid sick leave per Producer, which may be used during the period beginning April 2, 2023 and ending on December 31, 2023, to cover one or more Eligible COVID-19 Events
“Any production which has implemented a mandatory vaccination policy for employees in Zone A prior to May 12, 2023 may continue to apply that mandatory vaccination policy for the remainder of the production (or season, in the case of a series).”