PUTRAJAYA – A total of 73.13% of companies involved in film and drama production are unaware of the requirement to obtain a public entertainment licence before employing child and young actors, according to the Statistics Department.
Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said that the study on the employment of child and young actors in films and dramas in Peninsular Malaysia also revealed that 52.9% of the companies had never applied for a Public Entertainment Licence for Children and Young Persons, and 47.1% were unsure about the application process for such a licence.
“The study shows that the three highest age groups for the employment of child and young actors in films or dramas in Peninsular Malaysia are those aged between 15 years and 17 years 11 months (32.7%); followed by the age group of 13 years 11 months to 14 years 11 months (32.4%); and five years 11 months to 12 years 11 months (24.7%).”
He said this at the launch of the Report on the Study for Employment of Child and Young Person Actors in Film and Drama in Peninsular Malaysia 2023 and the Report on the Study of Malaysian Diaspora in Brunei Darussalam, here today.
Uzir said a total of 361 companies that employ child and young actors in film and dramas were involved in answering the questionnaire for the study.
He said 27 representatives from each ministry, department, agency, academics, employers’ associations, trade unions, television producers, production companies, film directors and producers and former child actors who have acted in films and dramas have participated in the focus group discussion and interview sessions.
The study, conducted from February 8 to December 31 last year, was policy-oriented research aimed at providing a basic profile, identifying issues and proposing appropriate recommendations to the parties involved.
Uzir said to overcome the licensing issue, 63.4% of the companies agreed that labour education programmes needed to be improved to ensure that the parties involved had the awareness and knowledge to comply with the relevant labour laws.
In terms of payment, he said the study showed that 83.7% of individuals who received payment on behalf of child and young actors were their parents or guardians.
“In particular, mothers are the highest number of individuals receiving payment on behalf of these child and young actors, which is 50.4% followed by fathers at 18.8% and guardians at 14.4%,” he said.
The chief statistician said the findings also showed that 72.6% of companies did not provide payslips or wage-payment statements to child and young actors, while as many as 77.3% of companies stated that payment was made according to the number of episodes, scenes acted and dubbing recordings.
Furthermore, he said the study also found that 97.8% of companies did not make Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) contributions to child and young actors and 59.3% of companies did not even plan to do so in the future.
“The five main reasons for companies not making contributions are because the companies realised that there is a need to contribute to the EPF but they feel the actor’s age is still young (46%).
Other reasons given were that the companies were not informed about the need to contribute to the EPF (26%); the companies were not aware of the need to contribute to the EPF (8.6%); the child and young actors were temporary and non-permanent actors (8.3%); and financial constraints of the company (4.2%).
Uzir said the results of the study had also suggested six strategies that focused on 20 initiatives and 20 specific action plans for the respective parties involved in the employment of child and young actors in films and dramas.
The proposed strategies are Strengthening the Level of Compliance and Enforcement of the Employment of Child and Young Person Actors; Extending Social Protection Programme to Child and Young Person Actors; Empowering the Role of Parents/Guardians/Individuals Appointed by Parents or Guardians in Managing Child and Young Person Actors; Determination of Representatives to Represent Child and Young Person Actors; Strengthening the Human Capital Development Programme Specific to the Employment of Child and Young Person Actors; and Developing an Integrated Database of Child and Young Person Actors. – February 19, 2024