As 2022 ends, who’s thinking about stand-ins?

Well, Stand-In Central is!

The question before us is what 2022 brought for stand-ins. Read on for some takes on stand-in work in 2022.

Coronavirus

The coronavirus pandemic still has a dominating presence in the entertainment industry. Positive test results still popped even into December, scrambling production schedules and at times still even bringing them to a halt.

Coronavirus testing is generally still required in order to be eligible to work, though the mandates around testing frequency seem to have changed. Although some TV and film productions have required testing for stand-ins before every day of work, stand-ins who regularly worked on production might have ended up regarded essentially as “crew” — or at least as part of the group of employees who tests “in cadence,” testing on certain days of the week or with certain frequency.

This meant that some stand-ins didn’t have to test on the day before work — perhaps even testing upon arrival at work.

Diminishment of COVID-Testing Stipends

Productions seemed to become more cost-sensitive, wanting to spare paying union stand-ins the $100 stipend required by their Return To Work Agreement for testing on a day not working. So, stand-ins started finding they lost out on COVID-test stipends when they were tested on the same day they showed up to work.

COVID-testing stipends helped stand-ins become eligible for health insurance and pension credits, so the loss of these stipends did not only hit stand-ins in the bank account but also in their benefit eligibility.

COVID & Netcode

SAG-AFTRA still has not struck any agreement with TV producers working under the Network Television Code (“Netcode”) around testing requirements or any similar pandemic-related working conditions that TV producers under the Television Agreement saw. This, despite SAG-AFTRA being in “ongoing negotiations” about such subjects with Netcode producers and despite SAG-AFTRA negotiating in 2022 a successor to the long expired Netcode.

The only COVID-related work condition SAG-AFTRA secured was to “Add [to the Netcode] an unpublished sideletter requiring the producer to discuss with the union possible alternate approaches to providing hair and makeup services to performers on daytime serials in the event that a circumstance akin to COVID-19 arises that creates safety concerns with respect to providing hair and makeup services in the ordinary manner.” As you can see, the passage does not really deal with pandemic-related working conditions in a major way, leaving on the table requirements to pay stand-ins for testing, the answering of health surveys during non-work hours, etc.

COVID & TV/Theatrical Agreement

As far as the Return To Work Agreement, SAG-AFTRA quietly agreed to drop terms it referenced in the White Paper that protected stand-ins when working on feature films and non-Netcode TV jobs. It agreed to do so, then bafflingly expressed in a press release it had “the continued commitment to keeping casts, crews and all set workers safe in light of the changing impact of COVID-19.”

The White Paper language had provided the assurance that stand-ins could wear a mask while working, even if actors did not. When SAG-AFTRA agreed to drop this protective language from the Return To Work Agreement, stand-ins were left without a contractual right to resist an employer telling them to remove their mask when standing in.

Keep in mind that stand-ins are unusual workers. They are unlike background actors, who might remove their masks briefly when working but then put them back on between takes. Rather, stand-ins stand often close to other stand-ins for long periods of time, facing each other — subjecting each other to direct or close-range respiration. (The novel coronavirus is understood to spread through respiration.)

Stand-ins asked to remove their masks and stand close together for long periods may be subjecting each other to potential COVID risks that background actors or principal actors may not face in their briefer periods working near each other unmasked. So, SAG-AFTRA’s agreement to remove the White Paper language from the Return To Work Agreement only hurt stand-ins (and other employees who might be working around unmasked stand-ins), adding unnecessary risk to their safety at work, contrary to the apparent interest in “keeping casts, crews and all set workers safe in light of the changing impact of COVID-19.”

Keep in mind that stand-ins had been wearing masks permissively when working up to then, and DPs have demonstrated they could successfully light a masked stand-in, even developing techniques for doing so during the pandemic. The innovations meant that stand-ins could effectively work when wearing a mask, even if they were the subject of lighting and camera.

Rate Increases

Netcode

When SAG-AFTRA members ratified the successor Netcode, those stand-ins who worked in 2021 under the expired version of the agreement found they received retroactive wage increases. Anecdotally, those retroactive payments arrived later than expected, and SAG-AFTRA did nothing material to address the issue, such as seek late fees for affected stand-ins. (This was the experience of the Editor of Stand-In Central, when seeking late fees on untimely retroactive payments.)

As for the increase amounts, some Netcode stand-ins saw increases in their hourly minimums, adding one or more hours of pay to their minimum paychecks. However, none of these stand-ins saw the decency of receiving an eight-hour minimum, which is effectively a daily wage common within the industry for union workers. These increases in hourly minimums may have appeared to be large percentage increases for stand-ins, but the actual monetary amounts told the true story, with some professional union stand-ins still taking home less than $100 for a day of work on a TV production.

TV/Theatrical & Commercials

Stand-ins under the Theatrical and TV Agreements saw their typical pattern increases of around $5 a day. However, stand-ins under the Commercials Contract saw an extraordinary percentage increase in their wages — 10% — meaning most stand-ins on a commercial made $469.90 for eight hours.

Anything Else?

These are the topics that come quickly to mind. Will stand-in work change much in 2023? It’s hard to imagine. But we shall see!

What changes to stand-in work did you see in 2022? What changes to stand-in work do you foresee in 2023? Share your thoughts in the comments below!