What is a Personal Service Contract?
What's an example of a "better term and condition"?
Do I have to agree to the terms of the PSC the company gives me?
I went ahead and signed the PSC when the company gave it to me. Now that I've read it, there's stuff in it I don't like. Can I ask them to change it?
I asked about more vacation time. They said that's a union-set thing and not subject to negotiation.
The company wants me to work exclusively for them. Can they do this?
The company is asking for an "exclusive, non-reciprocal option" for an additional year of my services. Could you explain this?
The language in my contract seems pretty one-sided, giving lots of rights to the company and not many rights to me.
Is all the language in these contracts legal?
Should I negotiate a PSC myself? Or hire an agent or lawyer?
A personal service contract is an agreement between an employer and an individual employee which offers better terms and conditions than found in our contract (the little book everybody gets mailed). Generally, personal service contracts (or "PSCs") are three to ten pages of semi-incoherent legalese that lays down employer/employee responsibilities.
Better terms and conditions vary from contract to contract. As a rule of thumb, they usually include:
higher pay than the Collective Bargaining Agreement minimum;
The terms vary as widely as the employees who receive them. Many PSCs are "tailor-made" for the employee to whom they're being offered.
No. The PSC you're given is a proposal. We tell everyone to give the company counter-proposals. This could be anything - from a higher wage, to more vacation time, to the length of the PSC. If the company refuses your counter-proposals, you can then decide whether to accede to their demands, or go elsewhere for a better offer.
You can always ask, but we can predict what the answer will be: "Sorry, you're out of luck." The moral: Read it first. The time to negotiate is before you sign, not after.
(One exception to this: when an employee is nearing the end of his current PSC - and this might mean there's a year or more to go - the company will often open new negotiations for a new PSC. This is mostly due to the fierce competition now raging between animation studios for qualified artists. No studio wants someone they need to slip away to a rival.)
Bullhockey - everything is subject to negotiation. Article 4.C. of the union contract says:
This isn't to say you'll get all that you ask for, but please understand that the only things the union negotiates are the minimums. In other words, you want more money? Extra vacation time? Sick leave? Ask for it.
Many PSCs have a clause requiring that you work for that company and no other. We do not advocate that anyone violate any contract they've signed. However, many artists have ignored these clauses and have freelanced for other animation companies.
It is Local 839's position that an employer can only prevent you from working for a direct competitor. For example, if you've signed a PSC with a company producing theatrical animated features, we don't believe you can be prevented from freelancing commercials, TV animation or greeting cards. We should stress that our position has not been legally tested.
Most of the PSCs we've seen grant an exclusive option to the company to extend your PSC beyond the "initial term" for an additional six months, or year, or two years. Usually this option does not work both ways; the company can drop you, but you can't drop the company. That's what "non-reciprocal" means.
Of course the language is one-sided. Disney, Warner Bros. and DreamWorks did not, all of a sudden, turn into charitable organizations. They draft these contracts for their own benefit, not yours. They have you sign them because they greatly desire to hang on to employees who enable them to get their pictures out so that they can make money.
As we said before, right now employers believe they need PSCs because the competition for qualified artists is red hot right now. They don't want to lose anybody.
Most of it is, some of it probably isn't. It would take a judge to rule on the legality (and enforceability) of all language in all PSCs. To our knowledge, no one has tested the legality of any animation PSC in court.
Here's an example: A few years ago a certain very prosperous animation studio on Buena Vista Street in Burbank -- that shall, of course, remain anonymous -- had standard PSC language declaring that everything in the PSC was confidential. However, Sections 232 (a), (b) and (c) of the California Labor Code say that employees have the right to reveal and discuss their wages without management reprisal.
After the Screen Cartoonists pointed out this small wrinkle in state law to the company ten or fifteen times, they finally admitted (grudgingly) that wages cannot be confidential, and removed the clause.
We can't tell you the best approach, it's really up to each individual. Many are now hiring lawyers to negotiate wages and working conditions in their PSCs. However, unless there's a lot of money or unusual terms involved, a majority have found it unnecessary.
The union has reviewed hundreds of contracts over the last few years, informing people about market wage rates, and suggesting bargaining strategies. Members may call us to make an appointment to review their PSCs. The union can't negotiate PSCs for individual employees, but we will supply you with as much information as we can.
Understand that most industry wages are currently above contract minimums. As a general rule of thumb, categories such as Animator, Background, and Layout are higher above scale than categories like Inbetweener and Breakdown. Check out our survey of market rates, or contact us directly.