Fair pay practice tools: Job handbook and Standard Regulation on secondary conditions of employment for producing literary organizations

Fair pay practice tools

The Chain Table of Literary Organizations c.s. hereby presents a Job Handbook and Standard Regulations on Secondary Employment Conditions. These are primarily intended for those working at literary festivals, events and literary-educational institutions. In addition, the Chain Table is today submitting for consultation a guideline on starting rates for authors and others performing/commissioned there. View the guideline here. For the sake of completeness, it should be mentioned that the national umbrella organization VLAM21 has commissioned HTH Research to conduct preliminary research into the fair pay situation at that time of both working and performing authors with a view to the start of the chain table in February 2022.

Practice tools:

AWVN i.c.w. FairPACCT Chain Table Literary Organizations fair pay practice tool 1: ‘Job manual producing literary organizations. Final version, November 2023.’

AWVN Job Handbook Producing literary organizations, additional appendix Analysis Framework notes, Sept. 2023

AWVN Job Handbook Producing literary organizations, additional appendix Indexing wage structure CaoTD, July 2023

FairPACCT Chain Table Literature organizations fair pay practice tool 2:
‘Standard arrangement of fringe benefits for producing literary organizations: literary festivals, manifestations and literary-educational institutions.

(Please note that the above Standard Regulation Secondary Employment Conditions refers to the final practice instrument; it includes the recalibrated zzp surcharge rates).

Review of consultation

One reaction concerned the low grading for management positions in the draft “Job Manual for Producing Arts Organizations. The Ketentafel Letterenorganisaties c.s. together with AWVN in principle follow within this manual as much as possible the Collective Bargaining Agreement for Theatre and Dance. This collective agreement distinguishes between the classification of an artistic or business director and organizations with an annual turnover up to approximately € 2 million and those with an annual turnover above that amount. Partly in view of specific recommendations of HTH Research and developments elsewhere in culture, the chain table sets this limit at € 1.2 million, price level 2025.

Another reaction concerned the limited self-employment percentage in the draft “Standard Regulations on Secondary Conditions of Employment for Producing Literary Organizations. The chain table basically follows the recommendations on digiPACCT. However, these apply particularly to side-by-side self-employed persons. Moreover, higher percentages have recently been proposed for 3 other chain tables by independent researchers. The chain table wants to take a closer look at all this and will come up with a final percentage by January 1.

Looking ahead to additional activities

As reported, the guideline on starting rates for performing/commissioning authors and artists comes up for consultation as of today, Dec. 1. The chain table intends to discuss its findings before the end of the year for a final verdict. The latter also applies to the zzp surcharge rate for the benefit of working people. After processing the consultation, the chain table wrote a letter to the state secretary of OCW on Nov. 22, with a copy to the Literature Fund. In it, the table reports that the national fair pay survey of November 16 and the fair pay parliamentary letter by the state secretary of November 20 logically have not yet taken into account the fair pay practice instruments of the chain table. According to a recent calculation by VLAM21 these lead to a structural cost increase of € 600,000 per 2025 for the long-term subsidized producing arts organizations, while only half of this amount has been allocated by the government for this purpose.

The chain table further states the following in its letter. Fair payment of authors/artists by the multiyearly subsidized producing literary organizations is extremely important, but much more is needed to improve the position of writers. After all, income from performances and commissions at these literary festivals is only a fraction of authors’ sources of income. The chain table has therefore been aware from the beginning that a “second phase” is necessary in which publishers, bookstores, libraries and other organizations must also be involved in order to improve the position of writers on all fronts. It urges the Secretary of State to create the space and opportunities for such a follow-up process.