Vancouver Animation Confessions

True Stories from Vancouver Animation Artists

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The Petition to Repeal the HTP Exclusion in British Columbia

If you live in British Columbia, please consider signing this petition.  The "High Technology Professional Exclusion" is a policy created in the early 2000s during the Dot Com boom, when people were making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in tech startups. It was originally intended to cap unreasonable overtime wages due to this special new expertise and help smaller companies remain competitive with giants who could spend whatever they needed to bring their company into the tech age. However, some time later, this exemption was incorrectly applied to the artists, who are not high tech workers, in the Animation and VFX Industries.

For the past two decades, “high-technology professionals” and “high-technology companies” have been excluded from the hours of work, overtime and statutory-holiday provisions of the Employment Standards Act. Under employment standards, the maximum daily and weekly hours of work after which overtime rates must be paid are eight hours and 40 hours respectively. The HTP exclusion exempts “high tech workers” from these provisions, and means that they can be required to work longer hours without the benefit of overtime pay; however, in the animation industry, employers often use the HTP exclusion improperly and fail to compensate employees at all for overtime hours worked. Not even straight time pay - these hours go COMPLETELY unpaid. Often employers turn a blind eye to overtime hours worked, and either ignore the hours their employees are putting in or pretend they don’t know - whatever the reason, these hours are not recorded or accounted for in any official capacity, and therefore are not compensated.

It has not been well regulated or enforced, and ultimately at this point has just been used as a loophole to abuse artists and force sometimes excessive unpaid labour upon them. It’s time for that to change. 

Please stand with the artists who make your favourite shows in Vancouver who are tired of being abused and unpaid, who are tired of being taken advantage of, and due to being unable to sleep (because we’re up so late working unpaid overtime) who are just plain tired. Sign the petition now!

Examples of shows made in Vancouver:

My Little Pony, Rick and Morty, Carmen Sandiego, Sausage Party, TMNT, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, Cupcake and Dino, Dreamworks shows like King Julian, Puss In Boots, Home, and so so much more.

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Some ‘per-footage’ based animation contracts still exist in Vancouver. While working on one of those shows, one month an animator I know received only 300$. For the whole month. That means the animator was paid $0.34 an hour. That should be illegal.

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A friend of mine had a heart episode at work, and had to leave for the hospital. He eventually had to quit that job. They told him “This will ruin your reputation.” It seems like this industry doesn’t have any compassion for health problems.

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A production I worked on once got very behind, it had already started to get out of hand at the beginning. My coordinator asked our entire team to come in that saturday to help the team catch up. I know a bit about labour law, so I asked if we would be compensated for that extra day of work, to which my coordinator said no. I told them I wouldn’t be able to come in as I had plans I couldn’t change. I DID have plans that Saturday, but I also knew that if I wasn’t going to be compensated for my work, I had the right to refuse to work for free. I don’t think anyone else on my team knew that though.

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This didn't happen to me, but to my friend. They were working as an animator on a difficult show. They kept getting a handful of scenes sent back to them not because they weren't animated well, but because the director/clients kept changing their minds about what they wanted from these specific scenes. In 2 weeks of working full days + OT (including weekends) this person made 30 dollars. They told me if they weren't living with their parents at the time they wouldn't be able to afford this job.

* Submissions edited for anonymity.

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When I was right out of school, I did a test for a studio. After my test was finished, they offered me a job. They offered me $600 a week for an animation job, and told me it was a fantastic rate, because other studios were only paying $500 a week. I was lucky that I had another offer for $850 a week, or I might have jumped at the chance. I had friends in the studio so I knew they often put in overtime. 600 a week divided by 50 hours, that adds up to about $12 an hour. I was lucky I had that knowledge and didn’t take that job.

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I was invited to work on a very popular and successful tv show on its next season and the producer tried to convince me to sign a contract with less pay while bragging how lucky I would be to work on the show. I did not take the job.

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I was made to feel guilty by a higher up when I had brought up the idea of asking for a raise. I had been working in that position for more than a year. They told me I needed to think of "all the others too" and not just myself. I ended up not asking for that raise.

* Submission edited for anonymity.

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I was assigned to help out on a very popular animated tv series in its umpteenth season. During that period my weeks consisted of 14 hours of work a day, everyday, including one day of the weekend. I was becoming depressed at how work was overtaking my life, and when the season aired my name was not on the credits.

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Not a confession but - do stories that are submitted get posted automatically?

No - thank you for asking! All submissions are reviewed before posting to ensure that no names, studio names, or possibly defining information is posted to the site. We want to make sure these stories are completely anonymous.

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Shortly after I began work at a new studio, my girlfriend, now my wife, came by the office to pick me up. The next day, none of the supervisors could stop talking about how "hot" she was. At lunch they all went drinking at the strip club down the street. After about an hour and a half they stumbled back in and one of the louder supervisors asked me in front of the whole crew what my girlfriend's vagina looked like. Management did nothing. That guy is still supervising in Vancouver.

* Submissions edited for anonymity.

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I would work from 930 AM until 230 AM before finding a chair in somebody's office that I could stretch out on. I would barely sleep, and get up at 7 AM when people started to come in. I did this several times one month, including on my birthday and Thanksgiving. When not sleeping at the studio I would catch the final sky train home around 1 AM. The studio was aware how impossible the work load had become, but nothing was done to change things. I received no extra pay for these 70-80 hour weeks.

* Submissions edited for anonymity.

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When I worked as a storyboard artist at one of the bigger studios in Vancouver, one of my friends, another board artist, was repeatedly intimidated and harassed by his supervisor. The supervisor would get drunk at lunch, then come back to work and review our boards. My friend told me the supervisor bullied him and asked at one point if he was going to cry. I have also heard of instances where artists were physically threatened by their supervisors. This illegal behaviour is usually dismissed as "paying your dues".

* Submission edited for anonymity.

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I wasn’t told I had to work overtime, but the deadline couldn’t get pushed back. I was really sick that week, and I ended up sleeping at work cause my home was too far away. I worked from 9 to midnight, slept on one of the couches in the break room, and then woke up at 8 AM to continue working. I was planning to go home that night, but by 11 I still wasn’t finished my work. A friend of mine let me sleep on his couch that night, and I didn’t actually make it home until the next day.

* Submissions edited for anonymity.

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I have worked lots of unpaid overtime, but the worst was over a period of three months where I worked about 13 hours a day. A friend of mine calculated what I should have made for that overtime (under BC Labour Law) and it was about $14,500. I lost almost $15,000 on unpaid overtime wages.

*Submissions edited for anonymity.

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This is a story of animation school in Vancouver, but I think it shows part of the whole culture that we live through here, and that it has a cradle (from school) to grave (animation career) effect. It was common to talk about jobs while in school as the programs are very job-placement-focused from beginning to end. 

I remember while talking about this subject our instructors would tell us to not be discerning with pay, to just take what we can get. It felt awful because I realized our teachers didn't have our best interests at heart, only the success of their programs, and the statistics they could show other prospective students. I learned that day that people who want to go to animation school should not trust job placement statistics - If everyone has a low paying job, you're better off working at a restaurant. With tips, you will make more money.

*Submissions edited for anonymity.

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Submissions Are Open

We are currently taking confessions about what it’s like to work in the Vancouver Animation Industry here. 

Please share your stories and share with your friends - our goal is to shed a light on the problems in the Vancouver Animation Industry, and to give workers a safe space to share their issues.

Submit here: link