Combating job insecurity in the cultural sector

In its press release dated 1^er Last March, the Swiss Trade Union Confederation (USS), to which the USDAM is affiliated, announced its commitment, in collaboration with the cultural federations, to fair wages and greater social protection (particularly in terms of AHV and unemployment insurance) for cultural players. These measures must form part of the national cultural policy, and the USS approves the Federal Council's decision to establish the professional environment as a priority field of action for the next four years, according to the draft message culture 2025-2028 adopted by the FC at its meeting on 1 June.^er March 2024 and then forwarded to Parliament.

According to calculations by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office for 2022, there will be around 259,000 people working as cultural workers as their main occupation, and a further 22,700 with a second job related to culture. Altogether, this corresponds to 6% of the total workforce in Switzerland. It is therefore a very important sector, employing more people than the financial sector, for example (218,000 employees in 2022). The USS points out that atypical employment has multiplied in the cultural world: "Fixed-term project contracts, part-time jobs and multiple occupations are the daily bread of cultural players. These people often have very low incomes and little social protection." Commissioned by Suisseculture Sociale and Pro Helvetia, Ecoplan carried out an extensive study in 2021 on the social protection of cultural workers in Switzerland, which highlighted the fact that 59% of them earned less than CHF 40,000 a year in the three years preceding the Covid-19 pandemic, i.e. less than CHF 3,075 a month (including a 13^e salary). The study revealed gaps in occupational benefits: 32% of salaried employees and 66% of self-employed workers said that their income from cultural activities was not covered by the second pillar, and 3% and 16% respectively did not even contribute to AVS/AI/APG. Furthermore, 5% of salaried employees and 10% of self-employed workers have no accident insurance, while 31% of the former and 50% of the latter stated that they had no daily sickness benefit insurance (although in the case of salaried workers, it is possible that not all are informed by their employer that they are adequately insured).

The USS underlines the importance of artists' associations, including USDAM, in guaranteeing their members good working conditions, decent incomes and access to social security. To achieve this, it is imperative that the minimum wages guaranteed by collective agreements on the one hand, and tariff recommendations on the other, are duly respected. Necessary guarantees in this respect should be provided by national cultural promotion; thus, the Confederation's willingness to ensure, when assessing applications for support, that applicants are committed to fairly remunerating professional artists bodes well for the future. Among other things, the cultural message proposes extending the provisions applicable to cultural players in the AVS, making the simplified settlement procedure better known, examining the possibility of creating a collective pension fund for all cultural players, and stepping up advice and support for professional artists. With regard to this last point, it is absolutely essential, if we are to achieve our objectives, that these services build on what is already on offer, in collaboration with the professional associations who already possess all the necessary expertise, irreplaceable experience and in-depth knowledge of the sector.

While the Confederation's program is ambitious, the financial endowment (average nominal growth of 1.2 % and real growth of 0.2 % per year) is unbalanced, to say the least; a significant increase in financial resources is therefore essential, especially as these are short-circuited by other decisions taken in the name of capping expenditure, such as the linear cut of 2 % in the 2024 budget, the reduction in the rate of growth of cultural expenditure and a further cut of 1.4% looming on the horizon. The unions are calling for these cuts, which make it impossible to achieve some of the many objectives of cultural policy, to be reversed.