A quarter of cultural companies in a serious situation

For the first time, figures reveal the extent of the damage caused by closures despite support measures, as well as the wide disparities in the highly diverse cultural ecosystem. The Task Force Culture Romande proposes four concrete solutions to improve protection for all the links in the chain to get through the remaining months, and guarantee a recovery that leaves no one out in the cold.

The figures are alarming, with more than a quarter of companies in a serious or catastrophic situation, and almost half of cultural players reporting financial difficulties. What's more, 43% of them fear having to leave their profession for financial reasons. We are therefore witnessing the possible disappearance of a large part of the cultural sector in French-speaking Switzerland.

Aid granted, but ill-adapted
The detailed figures that emerge from the survey enable us to analyze the reasons for this worrying finding, and identify gaps in the measures put in place. Several reasons emerge:
- capping aid and compensation at 80% in a sector where reserves are scarce. Nearly a year after the closures began, a quarter of companies say they have not yet found a solution.
- the bureaucratic complexity of the procedures and the slowness of their processing. In most cases, it took between two and four months to obtain a decision, then a further delay to receive compensation.
- pre-existing unequal social protection between self-employed and salaried workers, which has contributed to self-employed workers being particularly hard hit by this crisis.

Four solutions for better living
These observations only serve to reinforce the demand from cultural circles that compensation processes be simplified and speeded up.
The Task Force Culture Romande is therefore asking :
1. In the immediate term, support for any proposal aimed at setting up rapid, unbureaucratic assistance in the form of lump-sum payments, to support artists and cultural players and enable them to weather the Covid crisis with greater dignity, in particular the Roduit proposal to allow access to hardship assistance for self-employed workers, and the Dandrès proposal to extend the framework deadline for intermittent workers.
2. That the Confederation allow cantons to compensate losses in excess of 80%.
3. An end to the now blatant inequalities of treatment: a plan for the reopening of cultural venues, agreed between the Confederations and the cantons, must be put in place as a matter of urgency if we are to avoid an irremediable decline in culture in French-speaking Switzerland. Without these prospects, there will be no commitments - and then there will be no point in introducing compensation measures for cancelled events that never took place.
4. Finally, to implement article 114 al.2 let c of the Constitution: "self-employed persons may take out optional insurance" with unemployment insurance.

Taskforce culture romande

The situation described by cultural enterprises

Taskforce culture romande

The situation as described by cultural players