FWICE Demands Producers Pay Workers In A Timely Manner, To Resume Shoots By June End With Precautions, Read Details

The coronavirus pandemic has steered the Bollywood industry into a slowdown like never before. Everything is shut, there are no shoots happening, the cinema halls are closed, the new releases are stuck, some filmmakers are already planning to release their films meant for the silver screen on OTT platforms like Netflix!

And in the midst of all this, the television industry plans to start their shoots from the end of June. Bombay Times reported, FWICE (Federation of Western Indian Cine Employees) and CINTAA (Cine Indian Television Artistes Association) discussed the process of resuming the workings of the television after the Coronavirus pandemic subsides.

The chairman of FWICE Mr B.N. Tiwari told BT, “We hope to resume shoots, but with guidelines in place. For example, every worker will be given four masks per shift (12 hours), along with social distancing and sanitisation being made compulsory. We will appoint a supervisor, who will be paid by the producer, on every set to ensure that the rules are followed. We have also demanded separate washrooms for men and women." 

He further went on to state, it is on their top priority to make sure the producers of the shows, pay the technicians and the other workers on time. He stated, the producers, who haven’t cleared the dues of their workers, are expected to do it immediately, further revealing, they are planning to hold a meeting with the producers and broadcasters to design a better way to pay the workers.

And that, they want daily artistes to be paid within 15 days and others to be paid within 60 days from the day of the shoot, as opposed to the 90-day time limit. He went on to reveal, if it came to minimising the workforce on a set, they would want the producers to divide the unit into halves and pay every worker, irrespective. Tiwari went on to mention, they have also asked the producers to increase the insurance amount to Rs 50 lakh in case of any mishap on a set.

In the same report, Tiwari further also shed light on the age of the workers, saying, members above 60 years of age and pregnant women will not report to work for three and four months, respectively, but have to be paid their full salary.