- VP bet and Sen. Chiz Escudero is pushing for a 12-hour workday limit for film and TV workers
- Escudero says that the recent deaths of film directors should serve as a “wake-up” call
- Media workers have complained working 72 hours straight with no sleep under strict deadlines
Independent Vice Presidential candidate and Senator Chiz Escudero is pushing for a 12-hour workday limit for workers in the television and film industry; thus curbing excessive hours that expose the workers to unhealthy and unsafe labor conditions.
The Senator said that the recent deaths of film directors Wenn Deramas and Francis Xavier Pasion, should serve as a “wake-up call” to the industry.
Escudero, who is married to actress Heart Evangelista, is familiar with complaints by other directors and actors about the harsh shooting schedules and pressures to meet strict deadlines. Workers in some TV networks have also revealed that they sometimes take on the job for straight 72 hours without sleep just to finish an episode.
“The successive deaths of these directors should serve as a wake-up call. We should push for a more reasonable schedule for industry workers who normally work 16 to 18 hours a day,” Escudero said in a statement.
Through a proposed measure, the veteran lawmaker seeks to protect the overall well-being of workers in cinema, theater, radio, film, television and other forms of media by ensuring that they get enough rest and are treated with dignity.
“Workers in the film, television, movie and other forms of media spend unreasonable number of hours of work, which is not only inhumane but detrimental to their health,” said Escudero.
The proposed bill would fill in gaps in the current Labor Code which the Senator says failed to provide “normal hours of work to a unique set of workers, whose hours of work per day have yet to be set as a matter of statutory policy.”
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