FIM

International Federation of Musicians

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Social dialogue

⚠️ Croatia | Scandalously low salaries at the HRT Orchestra (SOHRT)

09.02.2024 International solidarity, Orchestras, Social dialogue, Status of the artist

SOHRT Symphony Orchestra – Photo by Jasenko Rasol

Photo © Jasenko Rasol

This shock­ing sit­u­a­tion resounds beyond the bor­ders of Croatia: the wages of the musi­cians of the Croatian Radio Symphony Orchestra (SOHRT) are entire­ly out of step with their lev­el of qual­i­fi­ca­tion, the artis­tic demands of their mis­sion and the very high tech­ni­cal­i­ty required for the jobs concerned.

Musicians are clear­ly mar­gin­al­ized in the salary scale of Croatian Radio (HRT) staff. While the orchestra’s soloists are recruit­ed via hyper-​selective inter­na­tion­al audi­tions, they are paid at the lev­el of a young, inex­pe­ri­enced journalist.

The com­par­i­son with the clos­est orches­tra in terms of rep­u­ta­tion and excel­lence – the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra – is clear: a SOHRT tut­ti play­er earns 40% less than their Philharmonic coun­ter­part. […]
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Senegal | First collective agreement in the music sector!

26.01.2024 Africa, Social dialogue, Social protection

Signature of collective agreement between AMS and Le PhareWe are par­tic­u­lar­ly delight­ed to announce the sign­ing of the first col­lec­tive work­ing agree­ment between Senegal’s Association des Métiers de la Musique (AMS, FIM mem­ber) and Le Phare des Mamelles estab­lish­ment in Dakar on 19 January 2024.

This agree­ment is the fruit of sev­er­al years of dis­cus­sion between the AMS and a hand­ful of estab­lish­ments employ­ing musi­cians on a reg­u­lar basis. An icon­ic venue in Dakar, Le Phare is the first estab­lish­ment to have tak­en the plunge since the 2020 Act insti­tut­ed the pre­sump­tion of salaried sta­tus for artists and tech­ni­cians in the per­for­mance sector.

This col­lec­tive agree­ment marks an impor­tant step for work­ing rela­tions in the music sec­tor. […]
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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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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 | Initiatives in favour of self-​employed workers

14.12.2021 Updated on 22.03.2022 Fundamental rights, Precarious work, Social dialogue, Social protection, Working relationship

EU Commission logo

On 9 December 2021, the European Commission announced three pro­pos­als aimed at re-​adjusting pow­er bal­ance between pre­car­i­ous work­ers and com­pa­nies using their ser­vices. Two of them are worth spe­cial attention:

1. A pro­posed direc­tive con­cern­ing the improve­ment of work­ing con­di­tions for those work­ing on platforms

The pro­posed direc­tive pro­vides cri­te­ria for deter­min­ing the pro­fes­sion­al sta­tus of those work­ing on dig­i­tal plat­forms. If these cri­te­ria are ful­filled, work­ers will be assumed to be employ­ees, there­by ben­e­fit­ting from the social guar­an­tees linked to such status.

In addi­tion, it cre­ates new rights for both salaried and self-​employed work­ers
 — by enhanc­ing trans­paren­cy in the use of algo­rithms by dig­i­tal plat­forms
 — by impos­ing human mon­i­tor­ing of work­ing con­di­tions
 — by mak­ing it pos­si­ble to con­test auto­mat­ed deci­sions. […]
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