The Film Daily (1933)

THE Thursday, Aug. 24, 1933 S*Zsf_Ll&&l DAILY 21 LABORATORY INDUSTRY CODE Full Draft of Fair Competition Agreement Set for Public Hearing in Washington Aug. 31 ARTICLE I Purposes 1. General Purpose This code of fair competition is adopted pursuant to the National Industrial Recovery Act and for the purpose of carrying out the aims set forth in Title I, Section 1, of the act insofar as they are applicable to the motion picture industry. 2. Purposes Excluded This code is not designed to promote monopolies and shall not be availed of for that purpose. It is not designed to eliminate or oppress small enterprises and it shall not be operated to discriminate against them. ARTICLE II Definitions The term "motion picture laboratory" as used herein shall include all establishments in which motion picture film is developed, printed, or otherwise processed. The term "person" as used herein shall include individuals, partnerships, associations, trusts, joint stock companies, and corporations. The term "employer" as used herein shall include any person employing individuals in the conduct of the operation of a motion picture laboratory. The term "employe" as used herein shall include any individual engaged in office work or in developing printing or otherwise processing motion picture film. The term "President" as used herein shall mean the President of the United States of America. The initials "NIRA" as used herein shall mean the National Industrial Recovery Act. The term "Association" as used herein shall mean the Motion Picture Laboratories Association of America, Inc. The term "Board" shall mean the Board of Directors of the Association. The term "the code" means and includes this code and all schedules annexed hereto as originally approved by the President and all amendments hereof and thereof made as hereinafter in Article VI provided. ARTICLE III Administration 1. Administrative Recovery Committee A committee, to be known as the Administrative Recovery Committee, and hereinafter referred to as the Recovery Committee, comprising the Board and three representatives of the government, to be appointed by the President or his administration, shall apply this code. The Committee shall be democratic in appointment, and its appointment, and regulations shall be subject to the approval of the Administrator. 2. Powers The Recovery Committee shall co-operate with the Administrator in making investigations as to the functioning or observances of any provisions of the code, in its own instance or on the report of any person, and shall report to the Administrator on any such matters. It may go directly to original sources for information strictly pertinent to the observances of the code, all of which shall be subject to the approval of the Administration. 3. Arbitration The members of the Recovery Committee shall constitute a second committee, to be known as the Arbitration Board. In case any controversy arises between two or more employer laboratories on issues not covered by this code, all facts shall be made available to the Arbitration Board which shall act as arbiter, and upon being fully advised in the matter, in accordance with rules approved^ by the Administrator, shall render its decision. The Arbitration Board's decision shall be Subject to Approval The Code for the Motion Picture Laboratory Industry in its present form merely reflects the proposal of the above mentioned industry, and none of the provisions contained therein are to be regarded as having received the approval of the National Recovery Administration as applying to this industry. binding upon the laboratories involved, and each shall abide by same. 4. Reports for Benefit of President In order that the President may be informed of the extent of observance of the provisions of this code and of the extent to which the declared policy of the National Industrial Recovery Act as stated herein is being effectuated in the motion picture laboratories industry, persons subject to the jurisdiction of this code shall at its request make periodically to the Recovery Committee such reports on wages, hours of labor, conditions of employment, number of employes and other data pertinent to the purposes of this code as may be required, and shall pay as a code fee, if the fees and dues of the Association be insufficient, his proportionate share of the amounts necessary to pay the cost of assembling, analysis and publication of such reports and data. 5. Investigations If any employer laboratory declines to permit the personnel of the Recovery Committee, acting under this Article, to examine its books, records or other sources of information, the Committee may suggest the names of not less than three firms of certified public accountants of reputable standing in the motion picture field, and if the employer laboratory shall indicate a choice among the three firms, the Recovery Committee shall employ the firm designated by the employer laboratory in making the investigation of that laboratory. ARTICLE IV Employment 1. Age of Employes No employer shall employ any employe under the age of 16 years. Provided, however, that where a state law provides a higher minimum age, no person below that age specified by such state law shall be employed within that state. 2. Hours of Labor No employer shall work any employe in excess of 40 hours in any one week, except in an emergency, and then not in excess of 60 hours, and under no circumstances in excess of 1,040 hours in a twenty-six week period. 3. Rates of Pay (a) Minimum rates. No employer shall pay any factory or mechanical worker or artisan, except apprentices, at a rate less than SO cents per hour, nor any office employe less than $15.00 per week. No employer shall pay an apprentice less than 40 cents per hour. 1. Selling Below Cost Not Permitted (a) Employes shall have the right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and shall be free from the interference, restraint, or coercion of employers of labor, or their agents, in the designation of such representatives or in self -organization or in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection. (b) No employe and no one seeking employment shall be required as a condition of employment to join any company union or to refrain from joining, organizing, or assisting a labor organization of his own choosing (c) Employers shall comply with the maximum hours of labor, minimum rates of pay. and other conditions of employment approved or prescribed by the President. ARTICLE V Industry Regulations 1. Selling Below Cost Not Permitted No laboratory products or services shall be sold below the reasonable cost of such products or services, unless in the performance of a bona fide contract in writing executed and delivered prior to August 7, 1933. For this purpose cost is defined as the cost of direct labor plus the cost of materials plus an adequate amount of overhead including an amount for the use of any plant facilities employed as determined by cost accounting methods recognized in the industry and approved by the Recovery Committee. 2. Arbitration of Existing Contracts Where the costs to the laboratory of executing contracts entered into in the motion picture industry prior to the presentation to Congress of the National Industrial Recovery Act or the adoption of the code are increased by the application of the provisions of that Act or the code, it is equitable and promotive of the purposes of the Act that appropriate adjustments of such contracts to reflect such increased costs be arrived at by arbitral proceedings or otherwise and the applicants for the code constitute themselves a Committee to assist in effecting such adjustments. 3. False Records No laboratory shall willfully maintain an incorrect, improper or false method of determining cost. 4. Unfair Trade Practices The following are declared to be unfair trade practices in the industry: (a) Any willful attempt to induce a breach of existing bona fide contract, or to prevent the performance of any contractual duty or service under any bona fide contract. (b) To effect or conceal price discrimination by the payment or allowance of secret rebates, refunds, credits or unearned discounts, whether in the form of money or gifts, the acceptance of securities at more than the true market value, the extending of special privileges not usually extended in the industry. (c) Commercial bribery, giving gratuities, favors or services in any form directly or indirectly to customers or customers' employes or obtaining sales by giving commissions or rewards in any form to employes of customers or otherwise inducing the placing of orders through lavish entertainment or indirect gifts or other forms of commercial bribery. (d) Any departure from original agreements with respect to terms of discounts for cash or time of payment which results in discrimination between purchasers of the same class of products or services and under the same conditions. (e) Substitution of material differing in any respect from the material orders, without obtaining the approval of the customer, or the use of raw material including raw stock in any manufacturing processes inferior in quality to the raw material specified in an order, or if not specified, inferior to the quality customarily used for similar orders. (f) Attacking a competitor as to his finan cial standing or personal integrity or his ! ability to serve the trade. (g) Pre-dating contracts or willfully misrepresenting the date of a contract. (h) Misrepresentation as to work or service or quality of work or service or materials, or misleading advertising. (i) The giving of any bribe, gift, favor, ! or service to any employe of a customer or competitor m order to obtain information about a competitor's condition of business. (j) The accepting of any rebate, direct or indirect, from an employe. (k) Influencing any employe to dispose ot his wages in any manner whatsoever. 0) To store producer's old film without making a reasonable charge therefor. (m) To furnish the use of cutting rooms without making a reasonable charge therefor. (n) To render commercial projection service without making a reasonable charge therefor. ARTICLE VI Modification 1. By the President This code recognizes the right of the President from time to time to cancel or modify any order, approval, license, rule or regulation issued under Title I of the NIRA. 2. By the Association This code may be amended in any particular, subject to the approval of the President as to matters he finds under his control, by a two-thirds vote of the members of the Association in meeting, provided that notice of submission of the proposed amendment has been given in the notice of meeting. ARTICLE VII General 1. Membership (a) AH members of the Association shall, as_ a condition of membership, subscribe to this code. (b) Association membership shall remain open at all times to any motion picture laboratory under no restrictions, except as to initiation fee and payment of dues. 2. Effective Date This code becomes effective the second Monday after its approval by the President. 3. Termination This code, unless otherwise terminated, shall expire on the same date as the NIRA. 4. Code Violation Violation of any provision of this code shall be deemed unfair competition. 5. Saving Clause Should any provision of this code be determined invalid or unenforceable the remaining provisions thereof shall nevertheless continue in full force and effect in the same manner as if they had been separately presented for approval and approved by the President. Signed and submitted by ALAN E. FREEDMAN, STEPHEN H. ELLER, TOM EVANS and HERBERT J. YATES, a committee representing the Motion Picture Laboratories Association of America, Inc., applicant for this code, and vested with suitable authority by resolution adopted at a meeting of the Association August 11, 1933, copy of which resolution is included in the formal application filed with the Administration.