SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) The motion picture and television production industry is an essential part of the California economy with its historical and current base in California.
(b) As the industry has evolved through time, so too have its employment relationships and business practices. Originally, production workers were employed directly by major motion picture studios, and almost all work was performed on the studio’s lot.
(c) Today, however, it is more common for work on a given production project to be performed in multiple states.
(d) The motion picture production workforce has also changed over the past several decades. Production workers are craft specialists who are no longer permanently employed by a single employer, but instead move from production engagement to production engagement as a short-term, mobile workforce.
(e) The complexity of employment tax laws creates difficulty in correctly applying those laws to collective bargaining agreements common in the motion picture industry and the highly short-term and mobile workforce present in the motion picture and television production industry. It has become common industry practice for production workers to be employed for the purposes of the Unemployment Insurance Code on short-term production engagements by motion picture payroll services companies specializing in production payroll administration.
(f) The unique nature of the motion picture and television production industry and the involvement of motion picture payroll services companies have made it virtually impossible to clearly determine a base of operations for the production or a place from which production services are directed and controlled and apply the tests in Section 602 of the Unemployment Insurance Code to correctly and consistently determine the appropriate state of “employment.”
(g) It has also led to inconsistent application by employers of the principles for determining if the multistate employment of motion picture production workers is localized to a given state.
(h) This uncertainty has resulted in confusion and delay for industry workers receiving the appropriate amount of benefits to which they are entitled under the Unemployment Insurance Code.
(i) In order to address these issues, it is necessary for the Legislature to clarify the application of Section 602 of the Unemployment Insurance Code to the motion picture and television production industry.