Rights and responsibilities of producers and producers' associations

Rights of producers

The Act has a number of provisions for producers that include:

• the right to freedom of association and expression (section 3);
• the right to form an association for the purpose of bargaining, and to have the exclusive right to bargain on behalf of its members, for the purpose of entering into or amending a scale agreement (section 24);
• the right to be notified, through the Canada Gazette or other means that the Tribunal considers appropriate, that an application for certification of a particular sector has been filed with the Tribunal in order to have the opportunity to make their interest known (section 25 of the Act and section 26 of the Procedural Regulations);
• the right to issue a notice to bargain to an artists' association requiring the party to begin bargaining for the purpose of entering into a scale agreement (section 31);
• the right, once a notice to bargain has been issued, to expect a timely response and to begin bargaining with the artists' association within twenty days (section 32);
• the right to expect good faith bargaining on the part of the artists'association (section 32).
  

The Act also sets out certain procedural rights for producers that include:

• the right to file a complaint;
• the right to file an application for review of decisions and orders or of a sector determination;
• the right to file an application for determination or declaration;
• the right to intervene in Tribunal proceedings.
  

Producers also have other important rights under the Act which include:

• the right to represent themselves at any stage of the Tribunal's proceedings;
• the right to file an application for assistance or mediation;
• the right to obtain information on the negotiation process and the mediation process;
• the right to request assistance from the Tribunal in identifying sections of the legislation which may be relevant to their particular circumstance and;
• the right to obtain general information.
  
  

Responsibilities of producers

Examples of the obligations and prohibitions applicable to producers include:

• the duty to bargain in good faith and make every reasonable effort to enter into a scale agreement (section 32);
• the requirement not to alter any term or condition of engagement or right or privilege of an artist or an artists' association contained in a scale agreement, without the consent of the artists' association, until at least 30 days following the expiry of the scale agreement (section 32 and section 46);
• the requirement not to participate in, authorize or apply pressure tactics against an artist or artists' association until after the commencement of the legal period for such tactics (section 46);
• the requirement not to refuse to engage an artist or honour an artist's contract, or discriminate against, intimidate, threaten or discipline an artist because he or she has exercised any rights to which he or she is entitled under the Act (section 50).