Film industry workers accuse producers of systematic employment law breaches

Film workers represented by a breakaway trade union say top producers Morgan O’Sullivan and the late James Flynn committed systematic employment law breaches and set out to “fleece them out of hard-earned wages”.

“They are morally bankrupt,” a trade union rep for the workers told the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on Monday.

The Irish Film Workers’ Association (IFWA) says its campaigning against “systematic blacklisting” in the Irish film industry led to 39 of its members losing jobs with Metropolitan Film Productions Ltd and World 2000 Entertainment Ltd, where it says Mr O’Sullivan and the late Mr Flynn were the “principal directors”.

The respondent companies say a series of designated activity companies and special-purpose vehicles set up for tax relief on film and TV productions in Ireland, including Vikings on Prime Video and Into the Badlands on AMC, were not “in any way a circumvention of employment rights”.

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Ibec representatives appearing for the production firms say they never employed the union’s members and that the workers have no right to bring claims.

At a hearing on Monday, IFWA representative Liz Murray said representatives of the two companies had signed off on a collective agreement with her members in 2015.

In it, the union said, they agreed to take a 12.5% pay cut and report to Ashford Studios in Co Wicklow as their ordinary place of work – waiving travel allowances worth €300 a week – so that Mr Flynn could “go to America and pitch for work”.

IFWA shop steward John Arkins said the deal was that the workers would get a 2.5 per cent cut of the profits and that the pay cut would be gradually restored – but that the companies “unilaterally” pulled out.

[ Vikings: Valhalla production firm receives €34m in film tax credits ]

He said he attended a meeting in the Grand Canal Hotel in 2012 as a Siptu shop steward, alongside representatives of the construction unions OPATSI and BATU, where the deal was put forward by Mr O’Sullivan and Mr Flynn.

He said these were committed to writing in 2015 in the “Vikings Agreement”, with Mr Flynn signing for Metropolitan and an executive producer signing for Mr O’Sullivan’s World 2000.

Ms Murray said her members “held true to their word” and worked under those terms – but that they had issues with conditions on set, including the use of fixed-term contracts, a “toxic” atmosphere on sets and alleged blacklisting.

In defence submissions, Ibec representatives appearing for Metropolitan Films and World 2000 said the companies never employed the workers – arguing they had only ever worked for a series of designated activity companies set up for each film production, which have shared directorships.

The Workplace Relations Commission last year rejected jurisdiction in sample complaints in five initial test cases – but has been hearing the remainder since January, following appeals to the Labour Court and High Court judicial review proceedings by the union side.