Arts workers protest over draft employment rules

On 13 August 2008, trade unions affiliated to the BNS confederation representing actors and other employees of Romania’s public cultural establishments started staging weekly protests against proposed new rules governing their employment. The unions claim that the draft rules would breach labour law and collective agreements. On 2 September, the unions and the minister of culture and religious affairs agreed to hold further talks on the issue, during which the unions would suspend their protests and the government would make no further proposals.

Factors behind the protest

On 13 August 2008, representatives of the Federation of Performing Artists’ Trade Unions of Romania (Federaţia Sindicatelor Artiştilor Interpreţi din România, FAIR), the Trade Union of Theatrical Establishments (Uniunea Sindicatelor din Instituţiile de Spectacole, USIS) and the Federation of the Librarians’ Trade Unions of Romania (Federaţia Sindicatelor Bibliotecarilor din România, FSBR) picketed the offices of the Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs (Ministerul Culturii şi Cultelor, MCC). The three unions - all affiliated to the National Trade Union Bloc (Blocul Naţional Sindical, BNS), which is considered representative at national level - were protesting at the contents of proposed administrative rules to apply Law no. 353/2007, which governs cultural activities. These rules deal with matters such as arts workers’ contracts with public establishments and the evaluation of their work.

The BNS president, Dumitru Costin, told the Mediafax news agency that ‘the rules proposed by the officials at the MCC are nothing but a blatant and shameless breach of the Constitution of Romania, the Labour Code and the collective agreements currently in effect, leaving room for the gross abuse of industrial relations in Romania by employer s in the cultural sector.’

One of the reasons for the discontent is a proposed change in the rules on employment in cultural establishments that would make temporary employment contracts the norm rather than an exception. Also, the rules would contain provisions allowing evaluators to cut arts workers’ salaries, which unions regard as ‘an unprecedented situation on the Romanian labour market’.

Trade union members state that they are seeking the rights provided to them under the relevant collective agreements, and accuse the authorities of ignoring the existence of both individual employment contracts and copyright agreements.

‘Unless the rules are brought in line with the current legal provisions, we have no choice but continue protests every week from now on, and, eventually, go on strike as the ultimate solution’, the BNS president said.

Ministry’s position

The MCC state secretary said that ‘the entire evaluation and pay determination procedure observes the employer’s freedom, afforded by law, to hire artists’ services through employment contracts of definite or indefinite length, while it equally observes the employee’s liberty to choose between the various employment contracts permitted by law... If I were an artist, I would work under the contractual terms offered to me. What matters is that a contract requires the consent of both parties.’

Continued protests

After the first protest, it was agreed that trade union and MCC representatives would meet to discuss the draft rules. The following week (20 August), protesters, joined by members of the Trade Union of Professional Stuntmen of Romania (Sindicatul Cascadorilor Profesionişti din România, SCPR), the Trade Union of the National Opera House of Bucharest (Sindicatul Operei Naţionale Bucureşti) and the Association of Professional Stuntmen of Romania (Asociaţia Cascadorilor Profesionişti din România, ACP), organised further pickets, this time also at the headquarters of the National Liberal Party (Partidul Naţional Liberal, PNL) whose leader is Prime Minister.

To make themselves more conspicuous, the protesters used sirens, whistles and the noise of stuntmen’s motorcycles, before singing the ‘Chorus of the Hebrew slaves’ from the opera Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi. Representatives of the protesting artists again held discussions with the state secretary at the offices of the MCC. After the talks, one of the union leaders told the press that no conclusion had been reached, and that the protesters sought the observance of Romanian labour law, EU Directives and the provisions of collective agreements in force at national level and in the cultural sector, because the draft rules were detrimental to any normal employment relationships.

On 27 August, protesters picketed again the offices of the MCC and the prefectures in 13 counties, demanding that the draft rules be deleted from the agenda of the government. Union members planned further protests at the beginning of September in 16 towns.

On 2 September, the minister of culture and the unions agreed to extend their ongoing negotiations by 30 days, during which time the minister pledged to promote no proposal regarding the draft rules, and the unions promised to call off protests. A technical trade union–government commission was set up to discuss and agree on the contentious points of the rules.

Chivu Luminita, Institute of National Economy, Romanian Academy