Union Configuration
Setting up a payee's union status, agreement, and job title
Union configuration is managed within the Engagement & union section of Role & Pay on the payee detail page. This page covers union setup and what actually happens when a payee's union changes.
Note: Union status and configuration apply to any payee type — there's no payee-type restriction on whether union fields are shown.
Union Status
Each payee is either assigned to a union or marked non-union, which determines how their payroll is processed.
| Status | Description | Implications |
|---|---|---|
| Union | Payee is assigned to one of your company's configured unions | Union rates and agreement rules apply; union reporting includes them |
| Non-Union | No union selected | Standard rates apply; a department assignment is how they're grouped instead |
Union Selection
Which unions you can assign depends on what's configured for your company (Settings > Unions). Greenroom ships with rule sets for:
- Actors' Equity Association (AEA)
- ATPAM
- IATSE
- IATSE Local 798 (Hair & Makeup) — a separate union code from IATSE, not a sub-option under it
- SDC (Stage Directors and Choreographers Society)
- USA 829 (United Scenic Artists)
SDC and payee type are independent
Assigning SDC does not change a payee's tax treatment
A payee's type — Employee, Loan-out, Contractor, or Vendor — is what determines whether Greenroom creates them as a W-2 employee or a 1099 contractor in Check, and that's set once, at creation (see Payee Types). Assigning an SDC (or any other) union to a payee does not change that. If you need an SDC director or choreographer treated as a 1099 contractor, their payee type has to be Contractor or Loan-out from the start — assigning the SDC union to an Employee-typed payee does not convert them.
What SDC (and USA 829) assignment does affect is narrower: for a payee who is already a Contractor, Loan-out, or Vendor and is on a Broadway-type SDC or USA 829 agreement, certain earnings — advances and royalties, specifically — are reportable on 1099-MISC instead of the usual 1099-NEC, while ordinary fees still report as NEC. That's a box distinction on the 1099 form for a payee who's already a 1099 type; it has no effect on an Employee-typed payee, who stays W-2 regardless of union.
Configuring Union Membership
- Open the payee's Engagement & union section (part of Role & Pay).
- Choose a Union from the dropdown, or leave it set to Non-union.
- Once a union is selected, pick the applicable Agreement — this is required before you can save.
- Choose the Job Title from the titles the selected agreement defines.
- Department is a free-text field available regardless of union status.
- Set the Effective start date.
- Once a union is selected, check Union member (dues apply) if the payee is a dues-paying member.
- Save through the page's single save bar — Engagement & union doesn't have its own separate save.
If the agreement defines rate tiers, a Minimum tier dropdown also appears, used for looking up the applicable weekly minimum.
Changing a payee's union
There's no special workflow for moving a payee between unions, or between union and non-union status — it's the same Engagement & union fields as initial setup, edited and saved like any other change on the page. Nothing requires a separate acknowledgment step, and there's no "transition period" view showing before-and-after configurations side by side.
Two things worth knowing when you do move someone:
- Pay rates are effective-dated, not versioned by union. If a union change means a new pay rate, add a new rate row with its own effective date on Role & Pay rather than editing the old one — payroll resolves whichever rate is active for a given run's pay period.
- A below-minimum rate warns, but doesn't block. If the active weekly rate falls under the new agreement's contractual minimum, Greenroom flags it — but saving isn't prevented, so it's on you to catch and fix it if the warning appears.
Best Practices
- Verify union membership status before configuring the payee
- Coordinate with your production's union liaison when configuring union settings
- When moving a payee to a different union, add a new effective-dated pay rate rather than relying on anything to carry it over automatically
- Double-check payee type separately from union — union assignment never changes it
- Keep records of union status changes for your own audit purposes; Greenroom doesn't produce a change history view for this
Next Steps
Return to Role & Pay for the full section overview, or see Company Union Setup for configuring unions at the company level.