Biz people covered by 8-hour labor law

LEO MARTINEZ

“The normal hours of work of an employee shall not exceed eight hours in a day—that’s the law. Why should [show biz] industry people be special and be asked to work longer?”

Thus said actor Leo Martinez when interviewed by the Inquirer after Monday’s meeting, set beween the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and industry leaders to tackle the issue.

Many celebrities are blaming the stressful environment and long working hours on the set of television shows for the death of directors Uro de la Cruz, Wenn V. Deramas and Francis Xavier Pasion.

Martinez, also the director general of the Film Academy of the Philippines, was one of the key industry personalities who attended the meeting.

Groups such as the Actors’ Guild of the Philippines and Movie Producers and Distributors Association of the Philippines were also present.

Martinez said the final draft of a department order, based on the information gathered during the meeting, will be released  on April 21.

“The agency gathered all our comments and suggestions that would then be incorporated into the department order,” Martinez said.

The meeting, which began around 1 p.m., was “a little tense” in the beginning, recalled Martinez. “But this was only because network representatives first wanted to finish discussing an unresolved three-year-old issue between the networks and their regular employees.”

Martinez said “only minor concerns on the draft, such as clarifications on the terminologies used, were discussed. We expressed our opinions, and the people from the DOLE responded.

“Agency representatives said there really shouldn’t be any issue because the length of working hours is already in the Constitution.”

Asked to assess the meeting, Martinez said, “It was positive. In the beginning, the idea was for networks and actors to sit down to decide on the working hours, but this didn’t push through. We are pleased that the DOLE intervened and requested for that meeting.”

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