According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) successfully reached an agreement with major television network CBS to compensate 24 writers with a total of $3.05 million for work they did after their official writing duties were supposed to have ended. The labor union leaders told their WGAW members about this settlement yesterday on Wednesday. The $3.05 million settlement includes $1 million in interest for late payments, along with the writers’ owed weekly pay and contributions to their pension, health and parental leave benefits.
The Hollywood Reporter explains that the $3.05 million settlement was the outcome of formal dispute resolution process initiated by the WGAW. Furthermore, the arbitration claim was specifically for writers who worked on the TV shows MacGyver, Hawaii 5-0 and Seal Team.
Union leaders Meredith Stiehm (Homeland, Cold Case), Michele Mulroney (Power Rangers, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) and Betsy Thomas (My Boys, Superior Donuts) explain the details of the settlement and the arbitration claim to the union members, “Guild members providing writing services on these series were required to continue working even though the studio had declared the [writers] rooms closed and stopped making weekly compensation and benefit contribution payments to the impacted writers.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the WGAW argued that asking writers to work without paying them violated the union’s basic contract with the studios. The union further asserted that regular staff writers and those with titles like “Article 14 writers,” meaning they have a “story editor” or another obtained higher-up title, should have continued to receive their weekly pay and benefit contributions during the time they were asked to work.
The labor union explained in a statement, “When there are reports of writers and showrunners who have experienced these kinds of unacceptable practices by their employers, the WGAW has and continues to pursue enforcement on behalf of our members and ensure the studios comply with the MBA.”
The leaders of the WGAW also communicated to their union members that CBS was not the only company guilty of closing writers’ rooms early while continuing to require writing work to avoid paying writers.
“The WGAW has identified several companies that have violated the MBA by declaring a writers’ room closed — even though writing continues — as a pretext to avoid paying Article 14 weeklies and benefit contributions. The Guild is pursuing claims for writers in those situations,” informed WGAW leaders to their members.