The Writers’ Guild hasn’t stopped trying to bring hell to the major studios, cheering on about a dozen workers from American Idol, Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?, and American Inventor as they filed 21 complaints at a California labor office.

The employees allege that they are owed unpaid overtime and subsequent penalties that would total over half-a-million dollars.

TV and animation writers went largely ignored in the WGA strike because of just how nasty it got, but they are consistently the most shat-upon in the industry.

Writes DHD:

The WGA did a study and found that 88% of reality writers work more than 40 hours a week, yet 91% receive no overtime pay. The study also found that 73% of respondents work through their meal break at least once a week. Most of the workers polled did not receive any form of health care or pension benefits. Yet analysts estimate that American Idol has earned over $200 million in profits for the Fox broadcast network.

“Despite the huge profits made by the companies that produce these shows, many of the workers – including writers, production assistants, contestant coordinators, craft services, and office workers – work long hours without receiving overtime compensation or being allowed to take proper breaks,” said a statement by the WGA.

That sounds a lot like this Sunday’s New York Time piece on bloggers.

But don’t worry, we love our bosses.

Not only is the WGA filing labor suits, but is distributing a lengthy press release about Senate Bill 1765, the Fair Market Value Bill. The California State Senate Judiciary Committee passed it today, meaning it will now go before the full California State Senate.

Stick with us, this is dry, but important.

The bill moves to make underselling illegal. Underselling is the practice of selling off a TV show, movie or other property under its “market value” to another subsidiary of your parent company. This is only important because residuals, pension, healthcare and welfare funds are based on the selling price.

Basically, let’s say that my friend and I (pardon our use of the singular, editor gods) make an awesome “I Drink Your Milkshake” t-shirt. We make a run of 100. I tell my friend that I will give him 10% of any profits I make on the t-shirts.

Because my t-shirt is awesome, there is instant demand and our shop (that is only selling one t-shirt at this moment) is filled with people wanting the shirt.

The guy who owns the building next-door is also selling t-shirts, and we went to college together, so I decide to hook him up. Instead of selling 100 t-shirts at $10-a-pop, I give my buddy the 100 shirts for $100 and make him buy me a prostitute.

Now, my original friend just saw his earnings go from $100 to $10 because I sold to someone for my own benefit and under market value.

Make sense?

This is pissing the MPAA off to no end, as it represents the same studios that just went through hell to end the first strike.

They speedily released a statement:

“Though not unexpected, today’s vote by the State Senate Judiciary is regrettable. SB 1765 is an ill-conceived bill that would criminalize legitimate business decisions by producers of movies and TV programs as they seek to generate revenue created for producers and talent alike. Films and television shows would have to be immediately sold to the highest bidder, upending the successful business practices that have made the entertainment industry a vital engine in the California State economy, creating more than half a million jobs and bringing nearly $43 billion of economic activity to the State each year.

“Of equal concern, this bill would essentially force a legislative ‘do-over’ of the collective bargaining agreement that settled the writers’ strike, which cost the California economy $2.5 billion. Writers and producers made an extraordinary effort to reach a fair deal that put an end to that work stoppage. Enabling the Writers Guild to do an end-run around the collective bargaining process would set a dangerous precedent for future labor negotiations.”

So, who is being unfair here?

More importantly, we have yet to see if this really would up-end everything the strike was for in the first place.

Either way, this shit is about to go down, and the WGA refuses to let anyone forget about them.