Singapore
From April next year, companies must adopt the tripartite standard on the procurement of services from media freelancers in order to qualify for IMDA grants or funding for Public Service Broadcast content.
Senior Minister of State for Comunications and Information, Chee Hong Tat at the Asia TV Forum & Market and ScreenSingapore 2017 (Photo: Lianne Chia)
SINGAPORE: A tripartite standard which aims to encourage fair and progressive workplaces that better support media freelancers was officially launched on Wednesday (Nov 29).
Announcing the launch of the tripartite standard on the procurement of services from media freelancers, Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information Chee Hong Tat said that from Apr 1, 2018, companies must adopt the standard in order to qualify for media grants from the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and funding for Public Service Broadcast content.
National broadcaster Mediacorp will also adopt the standard and apply the same criteria in their commissioning process, he added.
The standard sets out industry best practices in four key areas: Written contracts, timely payment, dispute resolution and insurance. The aim, said IMDA in a media release giving more details on the standard, is to encourage fair and progressive workplaces that better support media freelancers.
“In 2015, the media sector workforce consisted of 83,600 employees, and contributed S$9.8 billion in nominal value-added to the economy,” said IMDA. “Based on MCI’s Study on Freelancers in the Infocomm Media and Design Sectors in 2015, freelancers augment the media industry workforce by 50 per cent.”
According to the standard, companies are to provide media freelancers with a written contract clearly stating terms such as the agreed deliverables, ownership of intellectual property and payment milestones. This is to ensure that both parties have a common understanding of the service to be rendered, and terms of payment, said IMDA.
Companies are also expected to adhere to the payment milestones outlined in the agreed terms.
In the area of dispute resolution, mediation should be taken as the first course of action. In support of this, IMDA provides subsidies for mediation services in partnership with the Singapore Mediation Centre for eligible media companies and media freelancers.
The standard also outlines that companies should offer workplace protection for media freelancers through insurance for production equipment, commercial general liability and work-related accidents.
Plans to develop the standard were first announced in March, during MCI’s Committee of Supply debate.
Currently, 11 companies and associations have adopted the standard. They include regional broadcasters like HBO (Asia), the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents and Mediacorp. The Association of Independent Producers (Singapore) has pledged to adopt the standard by April 2018.
The standard is jointly developed by IMDA with the Ministry of Manpower, National Trades Union Congress, Singapore National Employers Federation and supported by the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices. It is Singapore’s first industry-specific tripartite standard that addresses the concerns of media freelancers, said IMDA.
