NBCUniversal extends health insurance for non-union crew members

NBCUniversal is extending health insurance coverage for non-union crew members amid the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

Non-union crew members, including production assistants don’t have free access to the funds Hollywood guilds have in place to assist disenfranchised members.

According to Deadline, non-union employees on NBCUniversal shows were notified on Wednesday that their company-subsidised health insurance would expire on August 31. 

Over the coming days, around 100 impacted staff will be notified that their health insurance has been extended through the time any of them resume work on a Universal Studio Group production (if the strikes end) or the end of the year.

Their benefits normally extend for 13 weeks after a production wraps.

The process was also in place during the strikes, with health insurance coverage extended through end of August — four months after the start of the WGA work stoppage halted most television production.

Elsewhere, CBS Studios, which normally gives nonunion employees four-eight of coverage after production wrap, is covering up to 13 weeks of insurance for its nonunion crew members on union shows impacted by the strikes.

Deadline adds that no other major studio — including the leading streamers — are offering extended health insurance coverage beyond the minimum. In part due to studios/streamers having an agreement with EP Cares, which provides health insurance benefits to non-union production workers.