Reality producer Optomen (A&E Live, Genderquake, The Secret World of Posh Pets) has struck a new, four-year, contract with Writers Guild of America, East.
According to the guild, the deal includes a 5% pay raise, a new labor-management committee and hourly overtime for associate producers--it had been weekly overtime.
Optomen was the first reality TV producer to negotiate an agreement with the guild.
WGAE has since struck nonfiction pacts with Lion Television and Sharp Entertainment, and represents the writer-producers at ITV’s Kirkstall Road Enterprises and Leftfield Pictures, NBCU’s Peacock Productions, and VICE Media.
“The Guild’s new collective bargaining agreement with Optomen offers a template for how writer-producers can build sustainable careers in the nonfiction television industry,” said Lowell Peterson, executive director of the Writers Guild of America, East, in a statement.
