As you may recall from earlier this summer, SAG-AFTRA members ratified the successor to the Network Television Code (“Netcode”). Along with the promise of wage increases and additional minimal hours for stand-ins came the promise of retroactive payments for work performed from July 1, 2021 through the ratification date of July 8, 2022.

In a webcast video around the time of ratification (at 11:46), the webcast’s host posed to SAG-AFTRA negotiator Ray Rodriguez the question, “How and when will we receive retroactive wage increases for work done after July 1st of last year (2021)?”

Rodriguez asserted, “Those payments should come in within sixty days of ratification … Sixty days from this past Friday.”

The Memorandum of Agreement for the Netcode successor did not appear to contain the promise of retroactive payment sixty days from ratification. However, per the date of the video, sixty days from July 8, 2022 was about Tuesday, September 6, 2022.  (If you are reading this post on the publication date, that was yesterday.)

Status of Retroactive Netcode Payments

The Editor worked multiple times under the Netcode within the eligible period for retroactive payment.

However, as of publication time, the Editor has received only one retroactive payment (within the prior week). The retroactive payment was not for any Netcode stand-in work during the period.

Listening closely to what Rodriguez said in the video, those retroactive payments only apply to work at scale. A stand-in working above the minimums in the Netcode would not be due a retroactive payment.

Next Steps

Rodriguez advised in the video to contact SAG-AFTRA if those retroactive payments aren’t received.

The Editor plans to wait a few more days to see if any retroactive payments that are overdue might be in transit.

If none come, the Editor plans to file a claim inquiry with SAG-AFTRA for the work days for which retroactive payments have not been received.

What about You?

Did you work under the Netcode at scale at any time from July 1, 2021 through the ratification date of July 8, 2022? If so, you may be overdue for retroactive payments.

Check your calendar, paystubs, vouchers, and contracts from that period to see if you worked under the Netcode. Assemble those documents in case you need to submit them to SAG-AFTRA in a claim inquiry. Avoid sitting on this, in the event SAG-AFTRA has negotiated some kind of limit to the period of submitting claim inquiries around retroactive payment.

Have you received any retroactive payments for scale stand-in work from the past year or so? If so — or if not — post your anecdotes below!