Activities

The activities of the WGJ come under four broad categories.

I. Defending writers’ rights

The WGJ signs collective agreements with broadcasting organizations, production companies, and similar entities. Collective agreements are strong contracts that take priority over personal contracts. These agreements guarantee minimum fees to our members for their scripts. We also help to negotiate higher fees on request.
Additionally, we help with problems and disputes arising in relation to our members’ professional activities.

II. Copyright administration

The WGJ administers the copyright on works trusted by more than 2,200 writers and their heirs (as of October 2016). We grant more than 100,000 licenses each year, for a wide range of uses. We are also actively engaged in reciprocal administration of rights, and have reciprocal representation agreements in place with copyright administration organizations in 12 countries around the world.

III. Health and welfare services

The social and economic situation of scriptwriters, who are generally self-employed, can be very unstable. We work to improve these conditions and to provide writers with a more secure working environment by offering a range of health and welfare services, including free health checkups.

IV. Educational activities

With the aim of cultivating the next generation of scriptwriters and contributing to the development of audiovisual and broadcasting culture, we organize scriptwriting classes, generally using the WGJ members as instructors. These activities have already produced large numbers of writers.