Hollywood studios, unions agree on virus-safety rules

Hollywood studios have reached a new return-to-work agreement with entertainment industry unions that allows producers to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for performers on film and TV sets, as well as cast and crew working close to them.

The agreement was reached July 19, and entertainment industry unions say they are open to updating safety protocols in the face of surging COVID-19 cases caused by the Delta variant.

"We are always ready to consider changes to the agreement," Steve Dayan, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 399 in Hollywood, told China Daily.

The Teamsters Union, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and several other unions reached the deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents studios such as Disney, Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers, Apple, Netflix and Amazon.

Some companies, such as Disney, have announced vaccination mandates. Netflix has told producers to require vaccinations on all its US productions. Workers can be exempt if they can provide verification that they have a disability or sincerely held religious beliefs that prevent them from being vaccinated.

The agreement will remain in effect until Sept 30. It was put together after an earlier return-to-work agreement between the studios and unions lapsed on June 30. The agreements require the studios to implement regular COVID-19 testing, masking rules, social distancing, paid sick leave, and compensation for employees who spend time health screening.

Protocol also separates cast and crew into different "zones" and creates a barrier between those on set based on their proximity to performers who can't wear masks on camera and their frequency of testing.

Dayan said the vaccination requirement of the new agreement applies only to those in Zone A, which consists of cast working on set and those who are present when the cast isn't wearing personal protective equipment.

"If you have to be in the presence of an actor who is unmasked, then you have to be vaccinated, but it's only in that circumstance," Dayan said.

The new agreement addresses variations in infection rates, including variants, at various locations with different levels of infection rates, according to a spokesperson for SAG-AFTRA. Producers have to apply stricter protocols at locations where the COVID transmission rate is above 1.1 for a seven-day consecutive period and the new case count is at or above 10 per 100,000 residents for that same period.

Los Angeles falls into that category. New York, Atlanta and New Orleans may fit the criteria soon.

Producers can relax the protocols when the confirmed transmission rate falls below 1.1 for seven consecutive days and the number of daily new cases falls below 10 for that same period. Production in all areas outside of Los Angeles could operate under looser restrictions unless cases in the specific regions call for the more stringent protocols, the spokesperson added.

Fox's The Masked Singer, CBS' S.W.A.T and the HBO Max movie House Party are among those listed as having active outbreaks with three or more laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to Los Angeles County. Fox's show has 12 cases, the largest number among the listed productions at the Red Studios Hollywood set, although work wasn't been halted.