A Continuous Working Day exists on the FAA/PACT Agreement and follows the same rate card as a Standard Day, except for a few key differences related to the lunch break.
You are not given a one hour lunch break.
You will not be allocated a specific time for a lunch break in advance.
Your working day will be defined as 7 hours long (instead of 9 hours long).
Instead, your lunch will take on a few characteristics:
Your meal break will be considerably shorter than one hour, often little more than 10-15 minutes. On occasion, you will have to return to set the moment you have finished eating.
You will be served lunch when it is appropriate for the production, often at some point in a large window of time allocated for a “running buffet”, for example anytime between 13:00 - 15:00.
Your meal break will be paid; your working day will not be interrupted by an unpaid lunch break.
The Continuous Working Day allows productions to maximise time on set in order to to complete their shooting schedule.
It also allows production to use the SAs they’ve hired more flexibly, often feeding one group first and then swapping them out with the second group on set. This enables shooting to continue uninterrupted while ensuring everyone gets fed.
The compensation you receive in exchange for this broken lunch is a shorter work day defined as 7 hours instead of 9 hours. This means that your overtime kicks in two hours sooner, which is paid in half-hourly instalments.
As of the PACT/FAA 2024 rate card, those two additional hours of overtime translate to £43.72 (four half-hourly instalments of £10.93).
In practice, Supporting Artistes earn more money on a Continuous Working Day.
For reference, the FAA/PACT agreement details the meal break in a Continuous Day as follows:
“During this entire period the Producer shall provide a running buffet for the use of the Artistes at the cost of the Producer and no cessation or interruption of work shall take place for the consumption of refreshment or meals. The Producer will use their best endeavours to ensure that the Artistes are able to take refreshments whilst not actually working and the timing and frequency of such meals to be taken will be dependent on operational requirements.”
Clause 7.1(c) of the PACT/FAA Agreement.
As of the publishing of this post, Continuous Working Days do not exist on the Equity PACT Rate Card.
quick note: Early Call Compensation
As with a Standard 9-hour day, the Continuous 7-hour day does not start any earlier than 07:00AM.
If your call time is before 07:00AM, you will be compensated for this time in Early Call (E/C) payments (£16.37 per half an hour as of the 2024 FAA/PACT).
For example, if your call time is 05:45am, you are owed three half-hours of compensation before 07:00am, so your early call compensation will be 3 x £16.37 (£49.11).
This compensation will be in the E/C (Early Call) column of your Job Review, NOT in the O/T (Overtime) column.
The reason for splitting Early Call and Overtime is because all day-shoot filming days are considered to start at 07:00am (or later if your call time is after 07:00am). This means that even if your call time is before 07:00am, you still cannot fall into Overtime until 14:00 (on Continuous Days) or 16:00 (on Standard Days).
Again, these early-call rules are true for both Standard and Continuous Days.
If your call time is at or before 06:00, you will also receive an additional ‘Early Travel’ pay bump of £18.86. This will be added onto your Travel column of your Job Review.
If you are working on a Continuous Working Day, you will not be owed ‘Short Lunch’ or ‘Late Lunch’ meal allowance compensation. This is because your broken lunch is already being compensated by the shorter working day.
In rare instances, when you haven’t been fed until long after the allotted window for the ‘running buffet’, production may pay you a late lunch fee on top of a continuous working day. This isn’t consistently applied however, so please do not expect this. On a continuous day, you are not entitled to any broken meal compensation.
You will be owed ‘meal allowance’ compensation in the rare instance that production fails to provide you with a meal altogether. As of the 2024 PACT/FAA rate card, this compensation is £5 for no breakfast, £10 for no lunch and £25 for no dinner.
Just like on an ordinary Standard Day, when you do work overtime, you will be entitled to a second meal break as outlined in the agreement below:
“On a Standard Day Call, Standard Night Call or a Continuous Working Day when an Artiste works overtime he/she shall be entitled to a second one hour meal break which shall commence no later than 13 hours after the Artiste’s time of Call. This meal break shall not constitute a paid working hour unless it is curtailed by the Producer. If the meal break is curtailed it shall constitute a paid hour of overtime. During second, or subsequent, meal breaks a meal shall be provided and paid for by the Producer.”
Clause 10.3 of the PACT/FAA Agreement.
In practice, this second meal usually doesn’t suggest a sit-down meal but rather a sandwich and or a hot snack provided at the end of the filming day and is never designated with a one hour break.
This means it is curtailed; your overtime will continue uninterrupted when you are given time to consume this second meal.
Since this second meal almost never receives an official break, productions often provide this food upon wrap or sign-out.
Continuous Working Days are popular amongst the SAs because they earn more money and they are paid to eat. It is often forgotten that a Standard Day isn’t just a 9 hour work day, but rather 8 hours of paid work and 1 hour for an unpaid meal break. A Continuous Working Day is 7 hours of paid work including your meal break.
Sometimes you will need to eat quickly or pause eating entirely and return to your meal later if you are suddenly summoned back to set. But more often than not, the shorter lunch breaks provided on a Continuous Working Day are still enough time to consume your meal in a comfortable manner.
We hope that this article has clarified what defines a Continuous Working Day.
If you found this helpful, be sure to check out, “What defines a Creative Reaction?” blog.
Many Thanks,
The Extra People Team.
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