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SINGAPORE: Disgruntled freelancers who have not been paid on time by production houses have taken their grouses online - various forums and blogs have appeared, carrying the names of some companies.
Big Communications was named in a local arts forum, while a blog Owe Money Pay Money named Threesixzero Productions and Oak3 Films as late paymasters.
The blog encourages media freelancers such as actors, models and cameramen who have been "paid late or never at all", to share their story and "let off steam" and warn freelancers of the firms to avoid. It removed the posts on March 11.
A leading production house Right Angle Media also recently came under fire in an online arts forum for late- and non-payment to freelancers who worked on a programme Lost Chapters, which was aired on MediaCorp TV Channel 5 in January,
However, Mr Alan Tan, who was an extra on the show, said he was paid on time, as were the other extras.
Rebutting industry rumours that the company was in financial problems, Right Angle Media's chief executive Adrian Ong said: "We are only too aware that some payments are delayed, but we are committed to paying, and have always done so. 2009 was a decent year for us, as many people in our industry are well aware of. "
Some of the company's several projects are still in production.
"We are not in any financial fix, but all projects take a long time to deliver," said Mr Ong.
Production houses face cash flow problems when their clients - which include advertising agencies, some government agencies and broadcasters - do not pay on time. Payment terms vary between 30 to 90 days.
Speaking to MediaCorp, Mr Jason Lai, director of Oak3 Films, and Threesixzero's managing director Han Kwang Wei and business development director Alan Lim said that the problems of the media industry are multi-faceted.
Late payments are just one of them and are endemic throughout the industry because clients pay late, sparking a chain reaction.
No one deliberately sets up to pay late or not pay at all, they contend.
"Freelancers and production houses are not on opposing ends - we are all in the same boat," said Mr Lai.
Mr Brien Daniels, managing director of advertising agency The Blood Group, said: "Paying on time seldom happens in the real world."
One director, who declined to be named, told MediaCorp that some government agencies "used to be good paymasters, but now they are some two weeks, a month late".
Institutions like the National Heritage Board are a "rarity" in terms of paying promptly, said Mr Daniels.
"Agencies that do not get a 50-per-cent upfront from their government clients, will have to fork out cash first to their suppliers, and this can sometimes go on for months in the course of developing the campaign," he said.
That said, there have been production houses that have paid on time and even weeks before a production ended, according to a seasoned cameraman who has been freelancing for eight years and who did not want to be named, when interviewed by MediaCorp.
Mr Jackie Ong, managing director of broadcast camera equipment rental company Cinegear, said that if a production house in Australia is either tardy in its payments or does not pay up, it "would not be in business" as the "unions will go after the firm".
Most media workers in Singapore are not union members, he added.
According to a official from the Singapore Union of Broadcasting Employees, media freelancers are eligible to join it. The union has a few members from AXN, Discovery and other broadcasting companies.
- TODAY/sc
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