WGGB wins for writers

Below are just some of our wins for writers in more recent years

View our ‘history of the WGGB’ timeline

• We are working hard in the area of AI to ensure that writers’ pay and rights are protected. Our lobbying and campaigning work has included meeting with policy-makers, speaking on Parliament roundtables, publishing a policy position statement on AI and recommendations in our manifesto Putting writers at the heart of the story. We continue to speak out on this issue, engage with Ministers, and issue guidance and one-to-one advice to our members.
• We have launched a joint union campaign Save Audio Drama at the BBC, following the decision to axe all audio drama from BBC Radio 3
• The agreement we have negotiated with Netflix is the first agreement with a global streamer for TV writers in the UK, setting minimum pay and other contractual terms.
• Our deal on digital delivery for playwrights we negotiated alongside Scottish Society of Playwrights establishes landmark terms for writers working under our UK Theatre agreement, in response to the explosion in streaming and other forms of online delivery of plays during and following the Covid pandemic.
• We spoke out about the shake-up to funding of Arts Council England and joined a successful campaign against plans to cut arts funding in Scotland. We continue to speak out against cuts to the arts at a local and national level.
• We negotiated a major new television agreement with the BBC which covers online use of writers’ work, includes changes to the rights of children’s and animation writers and increased residuals for all TV writers.
• WGGB and the Personal Managers’ Association set up Writers Digital Payments, a not-for-profit company that ensures writers get paid whenever their work is shown on digital services like BBC iPlayer. It has paid out over £14 million to TV writers.
• We launched a New Play Commission Scheme alongside partner organisations to tackle the decline in new playwriting commissions because of Covid-19. 18 playwrights are recipients of the scheme
• We released results of a survey in videogames which showed over 50% of games writers have experienced bullying and harassment, and launched best practice guidelines.
• We surveyed writers on the practices of ‘hybrid’/paid-for publishers who charge authors to publish their books and published a report and launched a campaign to tackle bad practice, plus a guide to self-publishing.
• We surveyed UK screenwriters in film and found that over 70% said they had not been properly credited in the promotion and distribution of their work.
• We agreed a groundbreaking set of principles to govern digital broadcasts of stage plays by the Royal Court, Royal Shakespeare Company and National theatre and published Digital Delivery of New Plays, which was backed by a number of leading playwrights
• We organise the annual Tinniswood audio drama script award and Olwen Wymark theatre encouragement awards.
• We passed a motion at our AGM declaring a climate emergency and pledging to “put the climate crisis at the heart of all we do”.
• We run special events to mark Black History Month, Disability History Month and LGBTQ+ History Month, and march each year at Pride London.
• We regularly respond to Government consultations, for example on film and high end TV. We submitted evidence to Breaking the Class Ceiling, launched by the Performers’ Alliance All-Party Parliamentary Group to tackle the lack of working-class writers, performers and musicians.
• Our Wales and Scotland branches are engaged in their own lobbying activity with the devolved governments.
• We launched an access rider for disabled writers and a Disabled, deaf and/or neurodivergent members’ network and other networks for under-represented writing groups.
• We work collectively with other unions to combat bullying, harassment and discrimination .
• We supported the TUC’s succesful campaign to protect the right to strike.
• We supported the #PayTheCreator campaign from the Creators’ Rights Alliance, of which WGGB is a member.
• We successfully campaigned against plans to privatise Channel 4.
• We launched a campaign to #SaveBBCDoctors following an announcement that the continuing TV drama was to close after two decades.
• We commissioned an independent report on the under-representation of women writers in film and TV and launched the Equality Writes campaign
• We supported Comedy 50:50, an initiative to implement measures to address gender imbalance in comedy, starting with writers.
• WGGB helped develop and supported BAFTA and BFI’s 8 Principes for combating bullying and harassment in film, TV, and videogames.
• We negotiated the Locked Box system with the British Film Institute to benefit UK screenwriters in funding the future development of films.
• We took a leading role in an international campaign to have the role of screenwriters recognised at film festivals, commissioning research and a detailed report, Written Into the Picture.
• We stood by our sister unions, the Writers Guild of America East and West on a number of issues including unequal pay among ITV’s employees in the US, the WGA’s dispute with talent agents and during the 2023 WGA strike.
• Leading playwrights backed best-practice guidelines we launched to protect writers during Covid. Our lobbying work during Covid included campaigning for an extension of Government support for the estimated three million freelancers who fell through the gaps and calling for a UK Creators Council.
• We lobbied Government during the Brexit negotiations and beyond, to ensure writers’ voices were on the agenda.