Law Times

Page 8 July 27, 2015 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com New law brings change to rules for child performers Bill introduces several requirements around hiring kids for entertainment projects By yamri Taddese Law Times new piece of leg- islation will bring "sizeable change" in how the enter- tainment industry handles child performers, a To- ronto lawyer says. Bill 17, the Protecting Child Performers Act, will come into effect next year with a whole new set of requirements around hiring children for live or re- corded entertainment projects. "The act does impose quite sig- nificant obligations and restric- tions for producers of these types of entertainment, so it behooves lawyers who are advising these clients to familiarize themselves with the act because it's quite de- tailed and quite complicated," says Dentons Canada LLP entertain- ment lawyer Bob Tarantino. The act includes "very odd, sort of persnickety" rules around how many hours children can work without a break and setting aside time for tutoring as well as obligations around parental ac- companiment of child perform- ers while travelling to and from the workplace, says Tarantino. The rules will be more familiar to film and TV produc- ers who hire actors protected by a union. "Historically, most com- mercial-grade, high-quality film and television production in Ontario is governed by the actors' union, which is ACTRA," says Tarantino, referring to the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television, and Radio Artists. "For a film and television producer, they'd look at this and say, 'I've already been doing this historically because ACTRA re- quired me to do it.'" The act applies ACTRA-like protections to child performers throughout the entertainment industry, Tarantino notes. "A producer can come to me and say, 'We're making a movie and we're going to do it on a non-union basis. So all of the actors we're hiring are not members of a union.' And that was totally fine. Now, even if it's a non-union shoot and they're hiring minors, they have to comply with these obligations." The new requirements will be especially different for live- performance operators such as circus, opera, and dance shows, according to Tarantino. One of the most significant aspects of the act is a require- ment that the employer deposit 25 per cent of a child's income, where he or she makes more than $2,000 on a production project, into a trust account. While that has been a relative- ly standard practice in the film and TV world, "it's brand new" for other parts of the entertain- ment industry, says Tarantino. The act's requirements around the working hours of child performers and the breaks they're to get between work are very specific. A child less than three years old working in the recording in- dustry can't be before a record- ing device for longer than 15 consecutive minutes before get- ting a break that's no less than 20 consecutive minutes. When it comes to children more than three but less than six years of age, they can't work longer than 30 consecutive min- utes before taking a 15-minute break. The act goes on to specify the break requirement for three more age groups. "It's a big change," says Tar- antino, noting the act requires that there be a person dedicated to ensuring compliance with the act whenever a production in- volves child performers. Theresa Tova, the national child advocate for ACTRA, says the union has long advocated for the protections included in Bill 17. "We see this as providing some basic protections for the non-organized, the non-union world," says Tova. "This will extend the pro- tections of health and safety, education, limitations on work hours, time before camera, . . . some protections for the child's earnings, [and] the guarantee of a guardian on set, a presence of a parent," she adds. While the obligations under Bill 17 are "not as good" as the collectively negotiated deals, they're still an important step toward ensuring the safety and well-being of children, accord- ing to Tova. Tova says it's not uncommon for some parents to force their children to drink coffee to keep them awake for long hours of work. "That's a six year old. Send them home. They need to sleep. They've been on set for eight hours." It's also important that par- ents or appointed guardians are on the set to see what's happen- ing with their children, she adds. "We don't want children abused, for example, in the name of ex- posing abuse in a film that talks about child abuse." Before the new act became law, there were Employment Standards Act requirements around the use of child per- formers. But according to Tar- antino, "this is much more comprehensive, it's much more far-reaching." The act also says the em- ployer "shall be responsible for paying the parent or guardian's daily expenses and the costs of travel and accommodation up to the prescribed maximums." What the act doesn't do, says Tarantino, is create a contract ap- proval mechanism like the one used in British Columbia. That province has a provision that al- lows employers that have entered into a contract with a minor to take the document to a judge for approval, says Tarantino. Ontario missed an opportunity to introduce an approval mechanism for contracts with minors, says Bob Tarantino. FocuS on Entertainment/Gaming Law A With more than 1,400 pages of essential legal references, Ontario Lawyer's Phone Book is your best connection to legal services in Ontario. 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