Screen Producers Australia (SPA) has issued a Fact Sheet on writers and superannuation. SPA has argued that production companies are merely purchasing a writer’s intellectual property in a script, and that they are not engaging writers to “perform services” i.e. writing services. We do not consider this argument to be a sound one. The characterisation of writing contracts in this…
Writers who are engaged by production companies to write scripts are entitled to superannuation under the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 (Cth) (the Act). Section 12(3) of the Act states that if a person works under a contract that is “wholly or principally for the labour of the person” then that person is an employee of the other…
