Fair pay chain table proposals cultural education and amateur arts: respond now!

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The chain table Arts Professionals in Cultural Education and Amateur Arts of fairPACCT hereby presents its fair pay proposals and asks for a response from all concerned: preferably by Wednesday, November 1, 2023 and no later than Wednesday, November 15. Please use the form below to do so. This is a ‘Handreiking Tarieventool’ with 13 types of main activities of art professionals, intended for the self-employed in this cultural sub-sector and their clients. Feedback by fairPACCT and the chain table based on the responses received will be done by December 1.

Guidance on Rate Tool

The chain table based its proposals on preliminary studies, a Reference Framework on (adjoining) collective agreements and guidelines plus a report with a Survey among workers on the time allocation and remuneration of their work. In view of all this, there is now for consultation, provided with background data in excel, the ‘Handreiking Tarieventool voor zelfstandige kunstprofessionals en hun opdrachtgevers binnen cultuureducatie en amateurkunst.’ by bureau SFM in coordination with the chain table.

There is a broad field of work. These include teachers, consultants, coaches, conductors. With respect to assignments, the Handreiking Tarieventool distinguishes the following 13 types of main activities:

1-3. Verzorgen/begeleiden van: repetities van amateurkunst; voorstellingen, concerten en exposities;
bijzondere repetities (zoals generale en try-outs) en audities.
4-6. Verzorgen van lessen: op scholen (basis-/voorgezet/speciaal onderwijs, mbo, hoger onderwijs);
in de vrije tijd (zoals in het centra voor de kunsten, vrijetijdsonderwijs, theater-, dans- en muziekscholen); aan bijzondere doelgroepen buiten het reguliere onderwijs (zoals inburgering, statushouders).
7-8. Verzorgen van: activiteiten kinderopvang/buitenschoolse opvang; workshops/trainingen, coaching voor en met leerkrachten, andere begeleiders en besturen.
9. Creative production and composition of arrangements, including research, concept development, composition of choreography, scenario development.
10. Material production of performances and exhibitions, including inventorying, preparing and purchasing materials, props, scenery, costumes.
11. Preparation and participation activities festivals, summer camps and other vacation activities.
12. Preparing/organizing schools’ cultural offerings (not teaching as such).
13. Creation of teaching materials.

For each type of main activity there are concrete fair pay proposals: based on the Reference Framework this concerns the criteria for the hourly rates and based on the Survey Report this concerns the calculation of all the activities belonging to an assignment. The general zzp surcharge for this subsector was determined by SFM at 83.27% on top of the comparable gross wage per type of main activity and considering, among other things, the actual number of hours to be worked by employees based on collective agreements. Furthermore, experience of the art professional and complexity of the assignment are weighting factors.

For consultation:

SFM/FairPACCT Chain Table, Fair pay proposals: ‘Fee tool guide for independent arts professionals and their clients. September 2023.’

For your information:

SFM Excel: ‘Financial Background Data to Rate Tool. September 2023.’

Letter chain table chairman to House of Representatives on fair pay incentive

Given the division of responsibilities between the governments, the focus of the national government is primarily on the professional arts in the narrow sense. This also applies to the current preparations for the cultural period 2025-2028. In order not to miss the boat here, plus in view of the aforementioned Framework of Reference and the preliminary Survey Report, the chain table chair has already addressed the Lower House via a letter at the end of June 2023. This was sent in copy to the State Secretary of OCW, IPO and VNG. This letter advocates the necessity of a local basic infrastructure and a fair pay impulse for the sub-sector of cultural education and amateur art. To be realized by the central government together with co-governments and cultural funds.

For your information:

Chain Table Chair Letter to House of Representatives: ‘Need for local basic infrastructure and fair pay impulse for cultural education and amateur arts. June 2023.’

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Download the entry form here*:

Fill-in form

* Please e-mail the completion form back to fairpacct@platformacct.nl preferably by Nov. 1 and no later than Nov. 15.

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Read on about what preceded:

Brief history

After an exploration, the Council for Culture and the Social and Economic Council released the advisory report “Passion Valued” in 2017. The earning potential of workers in the cultural and creative sector lags behind, they noted. The councils called for the development of guidelines for reasonable compensation. Based on this, a Labor Market Agenda appeared in 2017 with three spearheads: structural social dialogue, strengthening earning capacity, improving working conditions. Also, the Fair Practice Code emerged with three principles: fair pay, fair share, fair chain.

Outline of the broad field of work

Many activities in cultural education and amateur art have been cut back in recent years, especially by municipalities. The CAO Arts Education only concerns subsidized organizations in the field of arts education, including dance schools, youth theater schools and circus schools. Furthermore, a very limited number of institutions still apply the Collective Bargaining Agreement for Municipalities.
However, independent art professionals work, through intermediaries or otherwise, for many different categories of clients such as: schools, child care, (youth) welfare, amateur art groups including choirs and orchestras, cultural institutions, sports organizations, festivals/holiday camps. Within these, varying financial provisions apply to these workers.

Specific preliminary research

All in all, this is one of the five cultural subsectors where the situation is most worrisome financially and for which a concretization of the fair pay principle was considered necessary in any case. Bureau HTH therefore presented in February 2021, commissioned by Platform ACCT, the preliminary study ‘Better Terms and Conditions of Employment in the Cultural and Creative Sector. A Proposal for Follow-up Steps 2021-2024.’ This contained, among other things, the following recommendations for cultural education and amateur art: develop rate guidelines for employees without a collective bargaining agreement and for the self-employed and calculate what it would mean if currently unpaid hours were to be paid.

Program fairPACCT and composition Chain Table from 2022 onward

The three-year program fairPACCT of Platfom ACCT has started by 2022 with the help of OCW subsidy to concretize fair pay. The Landelijk Kennisinstituut Cultuureducatie en Amateurkunst (LKCA) is doing for the sub-sector as a whole and in 2022 specifically with an Action Plan Labor Market Position Art Professionals in Leisure. FairPACCT, in coordination with the LKCA, has therefore assembled and supervised a Chain Table for the entire subsector. The table started in June 2022 and currently consists of 11 workers from various professional associations and the union, 9 types of work providers plus 5 commercial or non-profit intermediaries. In addition, co-readers have been recruited, particularly from the professional art education and welfare sectors. Bertien Minco, previously director of the Youth Culture Fund and others, is the independent chair.

Reference framework existing collective bargaining agreements, guidelines, etc.

At the request of the Chain Table, the independent consultancy Social Finance Matters (SFM) published the study ‘Fair pay arts professionals in cultural education and amateur art in January 2023. Reference framework for existing collective agreement positions, grading, hourly amounts and rate guidelines.’ SFM states that this mainly concerns art professionals – in particular teachers, consultants, coaches and conductors – who are active within those parts of cultural education and amateur art where no or no specific collective labor agreement applies. In order to arrive at decent rate guidelines for them, the study offers insight into the financial situation of these and similar groups in 7 collective agreements within the cultural and creative sector, 7 collective agreements for education and the social domain, and 6 guidelines from professional associations.

Survey report unreimbursed work

In addition to the moderate hourly rates, the fact that there are many unreimbursed hours was a hot issue within the Chain Table. Bureau SFM, in coordination with the Table, therefore, conducted a survey between mid-April and mid-June 2023, to which more than 1,000 workers responded. Based on that, in September 2023 came the report “Uncompensated Work. Focal point for fair pay of arts professionals in cultural education and amateur art.’ On average, 38.3% of the time worked turns out to be spent on additional activities that are necessary to properly carry out the assignment, such as preparing lessons, grading work, putting together arrangements and course materials, or rehearsing repertoire. In 76% of the assignments, however, these activities are partially not compensated and in 30% not at all. Uncompensated work is thus, according to the researcher, one of the main concerns for fair pay or fair pay in this segment of the cultural sector.

Learn more

Completion form (* You can mail the completion form back preferably before November 1 and no later than November 15 to fairpacct@platformacct.nl)

FairPACCT chain table Arts Professionals in Cultural Education and Amateur Arts (read more under the ‘current’ or ‘about the table’ section)

SFM Research: ‘Fair pay arts professionals in cultural education and amateur art. Reference framework of existing collective agreement positions, grading, hourly rates and rate guidelines. January 2023.’

SFM Survey Report: ‘Uncompensated work. Focus on fair pay of arts professionals in cultural education and amateur art. September 2023.’

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