VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Animation seen in everything from cartoons to visual effects in movies were made on the backs of artists who weren’t paid for hours of overtime.

That’s a growing sentiment from local animators who have been coming forward to a union fighting for them.

Jennifer Moreau with Unifor Local 2000 says animators who worked with Nitrogen Studios, the studio behind the R-rated comedy “Sausage Party” claim the film was made under a lot of overtime work, that they weren’t paid for.

She says animators claim they work 60 to 90 hours a week and it’s causing a lot of grief.

“What it means is that you can work your regular hours, but when crunch-time hits, you could do evenings and weekends and you might not get paid for that, you’d just get your regular salary.”

She says the Employment Standards Branch is investigating, adding that studios use a clause under the Employment Standards Act introduced in 1999 to squeeze more work out of animators who work in film, TV, and video games.

“Those industries have really grown since 1999, especially in Vancouver, I think that these companies have taken advantage of this.”

It was brought in during the previous NDP government and Moreau hopes the current NDP government will tweak it.

“Where it stands now, it’s pretty vague, it’s pretty loose, and I think that gives these companies a lot of room to bend the rules to their favour.”

Angry animators will be meeting over the next week to discuss unionizing and have been postering around the city to get the word out.

“We know that people that work in these industries are getting restless, and they’re not happy with these conditions, people are getting together and talking about what it would be like to have a union in their industry.”

She says the investigation should be finished in about a week.

Nitrogen was sold to CineSite, a London, UK-based animation studio with another operation already in Vancouver. Before the sale, Nitrogen released a statement denying the accusations, but Moreau says the new owners would have to settle any issues that could arise from the investigation.