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International Federation of Musicians

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Europe

Romania | Self-​employed workers victims of anti-​union law

29.11.2023 Updated on 24.01.2024 Europe, Fundamental rights, Labour rights, Social dialogue, Working relationship

FAIR-Mediasind logoHow far will Romania go with its anti-​union pol­i­cy? The ques­tion is asked as the Romanian Parliament has just adopt­ed, on November 16, 2023, a law reserv­ing for asso­ci­a­tions (not unions) the right to con­clude col­lec­tive agree­ments for self-​employed workers.

Until 2022, the law did not allow inde­pen­dent work­ers to be rep­re­sent­ed col­lec­tive­ly to defend their pro­fes­sion­al inter­ests. Faced with pres­sure exert­ed in par­tic­u­lar by the European Commission, the Romanian gov­ern­ment was forced to reverse this clear vio­la­tion of the right to free­dom of association.

This same gov­ern­ment then rushed to issue an order spec­i­fy­ing the nature of the organ­i­sa­tions engaged in social dia­logue on behalf of the self-​employed. […]
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EU | Towards a directive on the working conditions of artists

29.11.2023 Updated on 13.12.2023 Europe, Public policies, Social dialogue, Social protection, Status of the artist

EU Parliament logoOn November 21, 2023, the European Parliament adopt­ed by a com­fort­able major­i­ty of 433 votes to 100 and 99 absten­tions, the leg­isla­tive ini­tia­tive report for an EU frame­work for the social and pro­fes­sion­al sit­u­a­tion of artists and work­ers in the cul­tur­al and cre­ative sec­tors pre­sent­ed by MEPs Antonius Manders (EPP, Netherlands) and Domènec Ruiz Devesa (S&D, Spain).

In the past, the European Parliament has often lament­ed the pre­car­i­ous social con­di­tions of European artists and the lack of ade­quate social pro­tec­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly for pro­fes­sion­als with high mobil­i­ty. For the first time in its his­to­ry, it has just asked the European Commission to cre­ate a bind­ing leg­isla­tive frame­work in order to improve the work­ing con­di­tions of artists and oth­er pro­fes­sion­als in the cul­tur­al and cre­ative sec­tors. […]
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EU | Status and working conditions

25.09.2023 Updated on 03.10.2023 Europe, Social dialogue, Social protection, Status of the artist

Report on the status and working conditions and artists in EUThe Open Method of Coordination (OMC) is a prac­ti­cal and struc­tured way to bring togeth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tives from EU Member States to encour­age the exchange of good prac­tices regard­ing the design of poli­cies and fund­ing schemes. The method fos­ters a com­mon under­stand­ing of issues and helps to build con­sen­sus on solu­tions and their implementation.

Through the OMC, experts who have been appoint­ed by Member States meet 5 to 6 times over 18 months to pro­duce pol­i­cy rec­om­men­da­tions, man­u­als and toolk­its shared through­out Europe. The Commission is respon­si­ble for organ­is­ing the OMC, host­ing most of its meet­ings, and sup­port­ing the work of the OMC groups with pol­i­cy updates, and input, such as stud­ies. […]
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A New European Vision For Touring

20.07.2023 Cultural policies, Europe, Instruments on planes, Live performance, Touring, Travelling with instruments

New vision for touring - Logos of signatoriesAs Spain took over the Presidency of the Council a few weeks ago, with enabling cross-​border mobil­i­ty for artists addressed as part of its pro­gramme, pan-​European organ­i­sa­tions IAO, IMPALA, FIM, EMEE, Live DMA, Liveurope and EMMA rep­re­sent­ing alto­geth­er musi­cians and oth­er artists, inde­pen­dent labels, man­agers, music venues, clubs, fes­ti­vals as well as export offices join forces to call on EU Member States to launch a dia­logue with the sec­tor around the top­ic of mobil­i­ty as a vital com­po­nent of com­pet­i­tive­ness with­in the sec­tor. This ini­tia­tive address­es a gap cur­rent­ly not con­sid­ered by the EU and fol­lows the rec­om­men­da­tions by recent reports to fur­ther devel­op dis­cus­sions between the European insti­tu­tions as well as music and cul­tur­al organ­i­sa­tions (see for ref­er­ence the “One Voice for European Music” ini­tia­tive launched by the National Centre for Music in France). […]
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EU | Union representation for freelances

19.06.2023 Updated on 29.11.2023 Europe, Labour rights, Precarious work, Public policies, Social dialogue, Social protection, Status of the artist, Working relationship

FIM delegation at Madrid conferenceOn the 8 and 9 June 2023 the final con­fer­ence was held in Madrid for the European project (car­ried out by FIM, FIA, UNI-​MEI and EFJ) relat­ing to union organ­i­sa­tion and col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing for free­lances in the per­form­ing arts and media sec­tors. Hosted by Spanish cen­tral trades union bod­ies CC.OO. and UGT, the con­fer­ence was pre­ced­ed on 7 June by the final meet­ing of a legal work­ing group, bring­ing togeth­er, around the four fed­er­a­tions, uni­ver­si­ty aca­d­e­mics, researchers and lawyers spe­cial­is­ing in labour law and com­pe­ti­tion law.

The project is based on three pillars:

1. Union organ­i­sa­tion. Training activ­i­ties were pro­vid­ed by spe­cial­ists Becky Wright and Tara O’Dowd, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with mem­ber unions of the four fed­er­a­tions. […]
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EU | Commission’s initiative to strengthen social dialogue

31.03.2023 Europe, Social dialogue

EU Commission logo

On 25 January 2023, the European Commission pre­sent­ed an ini­tia­tive aimed at strength­en­ing and pro­mot­ing social dia­logue at nation­al and European levels.

Recognizing that social part­ners are major play­ers in social change and cri­sis man­age­ment, the Commission is propos­ing a Recommendation of the Council to devel­op nation­al social dia­logue in Member States and a Communication aimed at pro­mot­ing the involve­ment of social part­ners at European lev­el.

FIM favourably wel­comes this ini­tia­tive. The European Commission intends to fos­ter the con­clu­sion of col­lec­tive agree­ments with European reach, in par­tic­u­lar by pro­vid­ing admin­is­tra­tive and legal sup­port. In addi­tion, it pro­pos­es the appoint­ment of a social dia­logue coor­di­na­tor in each DG to strength­en the role of social part­ners in shap­ing com­mu­ni­ty poli­cies. […]
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EU | Resolution of the European Parliament in favour of artists

25.10.2021 Updated on 14.02.2022 Europe, Intellectual property, Social dialogue, Status of the artist

EU Parliament logo

As we announced in our arti­cle of 6 October 2021, the European Parliament adopt­ed a res­o­lu­tion on the sit­u­a­tion of artists and cul­tur­al recov­ery in the EU on 20 October 2021.

Adopted by a large major­i­ty (543 votes for, 50 against, 107 absten­tions), the text comes out in favour of con­crete and struc­tur­ing mea­sures to enhance the sit­u­a­tion of artists –per­form­ers in par­tic­u­lar– in all Member States.

It boosts our posi­tion on key issues such as the right to col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing for free­lance musi­cians work­ing on a self-​employed basis (European Commission ini­tia­tive: Collective bar­gain­ing for self-​employed) or access to tru­ly effec­tive and pro­por­tion­ate remu­ner­a­tions for online use of record­ed per­for­mances (trans­po­si­tion of Directive 2019/​790).

EU | The Semedo Report tackles the precariousness of artists

06.10.2021 Updated on 14.02.2022 Decent work, Europe, Intellectual property, Social dialogue, Social protection, Status of the artist

EU Parliament logo

Aware of the dev­as­tat­ing effects of the Covid-​19 pan­dem­ic on artists, the European Parliament has ini­ti­at­ed a process of reflec­tion to iden­ti­fy the means of ensur­ing that they have the best pos­si­ble work­ing con­di­tions, with­out ques­tion­ing the com­pe­ten­cy of Member States where labour leg­is­la­tion and cul­tur­al pol­i­cy are concerned.

A study com­mis­sioned by the Parliament and pub­lished in March 2021 served as a bench­mark for a draft report entrust­ed to the Luxembourg Member of Parliament Monica Semedo. Approved by the CULT Committee on 27 September 2021, the report will be vot­ed on by the Parliament in October. Underlining the pre­car­i­ous­ness of pro­fes­sion­al artists – which the health cri­sis has simul­ta­ne­ous­ly brought to light and exac­er­bat­ed –, it calls on cre­at­ing a European sta­tus of the artist and urges action on numer­ous fronts, in par­tic­u­lar:
– Mobility with­in the EU: visas and work per­mits, tax­a­tion, con­sol­i­dat­ing rights to social secu­ri­ty, retire­ment pen­sions and unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits, recog­ni­tion of diplo­mas, mak­ing avail­able infor­ma­tion con­cern­ing artists’ mobil­i­ty. […]
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