Committed to ensuring a safer and healthier workplace, in the last round of negotiations with the AMPTP, the DGA achieved significant advancements to enhance safety measures and precautions for any production covered by the Basic Agreement or the Freelance Live and Tape Television Agreement. These advancements include the implementation of the California Safety on Production Pilot Program (SPPP), a state program launching on July 1, 2025.
The Genesis of the California State Safety on Production Pilot Program
The DGA led the charge in Sacramento to establish the SPPP, which mandates that productions receiving the Program 4.0 California film and TV tax incentive will be required to hire at least one dedicated, full-time Safety Advisor who will work in tandem with, but independent of, the performers and crew members.
As part of the DGA’s agreement with the AMPTP, the film studios have committed to establishing additional pilot programs, modeled after the California SPPP, in New York and Georgia. Each studio, represented by the AMPTP, has agreed to implement the program for at least one 75-minute or longer dramatic project in each state.
In 2021, the DGA AD/UPM special Exploratory Committee recommended adopting the highly successful safety supervisor programs utilized in the United Kingdom and Australia for U.S. productions. In 2022, DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter appointed the DGA Safety Committee, chaired by National Board Member Karen Gaviola, to explore legislation and collective bargaining strategies to achieve better safety standards in the industry.
“Ensuring the safety of every professional involved in production was a top priority in our last round of negotiations with the studios,” said Gaviola. “Far too many people have been critically injured or died due to unsafe working conditions on sets. This is unacceptable. The implementation of the California Safety on Production Pilot Program is a major step forward to making sure everyone feels safe at work. We look forward to rolling this program out across the industry and in more locations.”
About the Safety Advisor
Safety Advisors are qualified safety professionals who possess professional safety backgrounds that demonstrate their ability to effectively minimize risk for both performers and crew members. The Advisor will be responsible for conducting a thorough overall risk assessment as well as individual risk assessments for specific hazards including workweeks over 60 hours. The assessment will identify and evaluate any pre-production and production activity or production locations that may pose a risk or hazard to employees and set forth a mitigation plan for those risks or hazards. It’s important to note that the Safety Advisor cannot have any other role within the production, ensuring their undivided attention to safety matters. While the Safety Advisor reports to the Unit Production Manager, or other person(s) responsible for overall safety, they retain the autonomy to address production-related risk, including, as a last resort, the authority to temporarily halt production until a thorough examination of the potential risks or hazards and the mitigation plan can take place among the decision makers.
The qualifications for Safety Advisors include:
- At least two years’ experience primarily performing safety-related work in the entertainment industry; OR
- At least 500 verifiable days in another crew positions with specialist knowledge, experience, and expertise aimed at minimizing risk to both performers and crew; OR
- Five or more years of safety-related work, where safety was a primary role and responsibility, in another industry, so long as they possess an appropriate breadth of specialist knowledge, experience, and expertise aimed at minimizing risks to workers and the public.
