Indemnity Waivers

Indemnity Waivers are attempts by employers to avoid, or transfer, liabilities onto workers

BECTU HQ has received reports of two specific Indemnity issues:

Employers asking workers to accept liability for some of the damage to equipment or cars hired by the production. 

By asking people to agree to pay up to a certain figure (for example, the first £750 of costs relating to damages), this will allow for employers to reduce high insurance premiums, by pushing those costs onto workers

Employers asking workers to waive employer liabilities relating to injuries or illnesses contracted at work. 

In some cases, these waivers seek to ask employees to absolve employers of responsibility for all injuries.

Bectu would urge members to challenge any contractual clauses that ask them to absolve employers of responsibility for gross negligence. Such disclaimers are generally, legally, pointless anyway. Taking the example of liability for people who are infected with Covid19, this would only be possible if someone can establish they caught Coronavirus on a particular production (which would be hard to show in most cases) and that the production company is negligent.

If this could be shown, any disclaimer is ineffective because you generally cannot successfully exclude liability where negligence has resulted in injury or death.

Bectu would urge everyone to strike such clauses out of contracts. The union has consulted senor employers in the film and TV industry and they agree that the inclusion of such clauses is both futile and irresponsible in an industry where people need clarity and reassurance. 

Bectu are monitoring this and will be providing more information as it comes to light