Bulgaria: The representativeness of trade unions and employer associations in the live performance sector

Performing arts – theatre, music and dance – are the sectors with the largest number of permanent employees across all sectors in culture and with the most extensive financing. Collective bargaining in the sector was neglected by the Ministry of Culture from 2005 to 2009. The Ministry refused to enter into negotiations on the grounds that it could not be a party to a collective agreement because the ministry is not the employer in the sector. In late July 2009 a Branch Collective Agreement (BCA) was signed in ‘Music and Dance’ valid for two years, but the clauses of the contract were not accepted by the current Ministry of Culture and they insisted on a review of the agreement. On 18 June 2012, the new BCA in the ‘Music and Dance’ sector was signed.

1. Sectoral properties

In terms of performing arts – theatre, music and dance – the policy in the last 20 years has focused on maintaining the institutional infrastructure inherited from socialism and providing conditions for creating a good artistic product, garnished with phraseology for private investment in culture, decentralisation, and so on.

Economic background

2. The sector’s trade unions and employer associations

This section includes the following trade unions and employer associations:

(i) trade unions which are party to sector-related collective bargaining:

The Union of Bulgarian Musician and Dancers (UBMD) is affiliated to the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB);

Federation Cultura is affiliated to the Confederation of Labour Podkrepa (CL Podkrepa). In CL Podkrepa there is no separate federation of the actors – they are direct members of Federation Cultura.

(ii) trade unions which are a sector-related member of the sector-related European Union Federations (i.e. the Media and Entertainment International – Technical Professions of the Entertainment Sector – EURO-MEI; the European Federation of Artists and Actors – EuroFIA; and the International Federation of Musicians – FIM).

(iii) employer associations which are a party to sector-related collective bargaining: the Bulgarian Association of the Employers in Culture (BAEC).

(iv) employer associations (business associations) which are a member of the sector-related European Employer/Business Federation (i.e. the Performing Arts Employers Associations League in Europe – PEARLE*): BAEC is member of PEARLE*

2a Overview of the Industrial relations landscape in the sector

Performing arts – theatre, music and dance – are the sectors with the largest number of permanent employees across all sectors of culture and with the most extensive financing. In terms of theatre, music and dance, the policy in the last 20 years has focused on maintaining the institutional infrastructure inherited from socialism and providing conditions for creating a good artistic product, garnished with phraseology for private investment in culture, decentralisation, and so on.

In 2010, due the economic crisis and under the pretext of ‘the observance of market rules in the performing arts’, the government drastically cut the budget for culture.

This had the following effects:

• Cut off the symphonic orchestras;
• Merging the modern ballet ‘Arabesque’ with the ballet Sofia State Music Theatre;
• Reducing the number of musicians, singers, dancers, technicians, resulting in an inability to perform much of the music repertoire (Bulgarian, foreign, romantic, classical, modern) – cuts in the sector of 500 people;
• Reducing of salaries, if any are paid;
• Impose punishments of the employees who oppose reform;
• Layoffs (mass redundancies), violation of labour legislation in Bulgaria;
• Imposition of a negative attitude towards the performers, their qualifications and their jobs in society in general.

The international community of musicians opposes the reforms of the performing arts in Bulgaria. The Union of Bulgarian Musicians and Dancers at CITUB with FIM (International Federation of Musicians), FIA (Syndicate of French musicians), and Euro-MEI (European Association of working in media), adopted a declaration at the international conference held in Sofia in September 2010 in support of Bulgarian artists at the European and international bodies, and UNESCO.

2b Data on the trade unions

The scope of this study relates to the live performance sector, which is defined as embracing the following sub-activities:

• Performing arts (e.g. live theatrical presentations, concerts, operas, dance productions)
• Support activities to performing arts (e.g. activities of directors, producers, stage-set designers and builders, scene shifters, lighting engineers etc.)
• Artistic creation (activities of individual artists such as sculptors, painters, cartoonists, engravers, etchers etc.; activities of individual writers, for all subjects including fictional writing, technical writing etc.; activities of independent journalists; restoring of works of art such as paintings etc.)
• Operation of arts facilities (i.e. operation of concert and theatre halls and other arts facilities)

2c Data on the employer associations

3. Inter-associational relationships

3a Inter-union relationships

3a.1 Please list all trade unions covered by this study whose domains overlap within the sector.

Union of Bulgarian Musician and Dancers at CITUB;

Federation ‘Cultura’ to the CL Podkrepa

3a.2 Do rivalries and competition exist among the trade unions within the sector, concerning the right to conclude collective agreements and to be consulted in public policy formulation and implementation?

No

3a.3 If yes, are certain trade unions excluded from these rights?

N.a.

3b Inter-employer association relationships

3b.1 Please list all employer associations covered by this study whose domains overlap within the sector.

Bulgarian Association of the Employers in Culture (BAEC)

3b.2 Do rivalries and competition exist among the employer associations within the sector, concerning the right to conclude collective agreements and to be consulted in public policy formulation and implementation?

No. Rivalries and competition do not exist among the employer associations. There is only one employer organisation.

3b.3 If yes, are certain employer associations excluded from these rights?

N.a.

3b.4 Are there large companies or employer associations within the sector which refuse to recognise the trade unions and refuse to enter collective bargaining?

No.

4. The system of collective bargaining

4.1. Estimate the sector’s rate of collective bargaining coverage (i.e. the ratio of the number of employees covered by any kind of collective agreement to the total number of employees in the sector).

The percentage of the total number of employees in the sector covered by the CA is 49.61%.

Uniqueness or so called absolute diversity of the artistic product is the condition for flexibility of the employment in the sector. Therefore, the labour market here is much more unstable (especially in the private sector). Temporary employment contracts and project-based activities in several places create a dynamic environment, far away from the atmosphere of the classical market.

In the sector employees who work under an employment contract are:

90.01 – 6,371

90.02 – 652

90.03 – 366

90.04 – 437

Total for the sector: 7,826

According to preliminary data from NSI, the employees with a labour contract in 2010 were 2,190,000. The percentage of employees in the sector to the total number employed is 0.36%.

90.01 – 2,662

90.02 – 341

90.03 – 646

90.04 – 234

4.2. Estimate the relative importance of multi-employer agreements and of single-employer agreements as a percentage of the total number of employees covered. (Multi-employer bargaining is defined as being conducted by an employer association on behalf of the employer side. In the case of single-employer bargaining, it is the company or its subunit(s) which is the party to the agreement. This includes the cases where two or more companies jointly negotiate an agreement.)

The collective agreement is signed by both trade union organisations – CITUB and CL Podkrepa – and by the only employers’ organisation BAROK.

4.2.1. Is there a practice of extending multi-employer agreements to employers who are not affiliated to the signatory employer associations?

There is no practice of extending multi-employer agreements.

4.2.2. If there is a practice of extending collective agreements, is this practice pervasive or rather limited and exceptional?

The practice of extending collective agreements is pervasive. In the sector 50% of the employed which are not members of the trade union organisations joined CA.

4.3. List all sector-related multi-employer wage agreements* valid in 2011 (or most recent data), including for each agreement information on the signatory parties and the purview of the agreement in terms of branches, type and number of employees and territory covered.

*Only wage agreements which are (re)negotiated on a reiterated basis.

4.4. List the sector’s four most important collective agreements (single-employer or multi-employer agreements) valid in 2011 (or most recent data), including for each agreement information on the signatory parties and the purview of the agreement in terms of branches, type and number of employees and territory covered. Importance is measured in terms of employees covered.

5. Formulation and implementation of sector-specific public policies

5.1. Are the sector’s employer associations and trade unions usually consulted by the authorities in sector-specific matters? If yes, which associations?

Government, specifically the Ministry of Culture is consulted by trade unions and employers on the following issues:

• Matters of labour relations, social security relations and employment in the industry.
• Concluding the collective agreements with trade unions in various cultural institutions within five months of the signing of collective agreements at national level.
• The signed collective agreement present binding minimum basis for negotiation and signing of collective agreements at municipal level.
• The parties to the CA/trade unions and employers should be involved in the preparation of the Competition Ordinance for directors, the criteria for competitions and appraisal mechanism during their mandate.

5.2. Do tripartite bodies dealing with sector-specific issues exist? If yes, please indicate their domain of activity (for instance, health and safety, equal opportunities, labour market, social security and pensions etc.), their origin (agreement/statutory) and the interest organisations having representatives in them:

* Sector-specific policies specifically target and affect the sector under consideration.

6. Statutory regulations of representativeness

6a Statutory regulations of representativeness for trade unions

6a.1 In the case of the trade unions, do statutory regulations exist which establish criteria of representativeness which a union must meet, so as to be entitled to conclude collective agreements? If yes, please briefly illustrate these rules and list the organisations which meet them.

According to article 51 of the Labour Code and under current regulations in the European legislation, CA extends only to members of trade unions. In Bulgaria these are: Union of Bulgarian Musicians and Dancers to CITUB, Federation Culture to the CL Podkrepa, as only two are the nationally representative trade unions in Bulgaria (CITUB and CL Podkrepa under the Labour Code).

6a.2 In the case of the trade unions, do statutory regulations exist which establish criteria of representativeness which a union must meet, so as to be entitled to be consulted in matters of public policy and to participate in tripartite bodies? If yes, please briefly illustrate these rules and list the organisations which meet them.

Statutory regulations exist and they establish criteria of representativeness which a union must meet.

6a.3 Are elections for a certain representational body (e.g. works councils) established as criteria for trade union representativeness? If yes, please report the most recent electoral outcome for the sector.

There is no works council in the sector. There is no other representational body established as criteria for trade union representativeness.

6b Statutory regulations of representativeness for employer organisations

6b.1 In the case of the employer organisations, do statutory regulations exist which establish criteria of representativeness which an organisation must meet, so as to be entitled to conclude collective agreements? If yes, please briefly illustrate these rules and list the organisations which meet them.

Statutory regulations exist and they establish criteria of representativeness which an employers’ organisations must meet.

6b.2 In the case of the employer organisations, do statutory regulations exist which establish criteria of representativeness which an organisation must meet, so as to be entitled to be consulted in matters of public policy and to participate in tripartite bodies? If yes, please briefly illustrate these rules and list the organisations which meet them.

Statutory regulations exist in the Labour Code and they establish criteria of representativeness which an organisation must meet, so as to be entitled to be consulted in matters of public policy and to participate in tripartite bodies

6b.3 Are elections for a certain representational body established as criteria for the representativeness of employer associations? If yes, please report the most recent outcome for the sector.

No.

7. Commentary

Collective bargaining is an essential tool for social peace and prosperity in the well-being of the employees in the sector Music and Dance. It is closely related to social and political relations and is based on the economic situation in the world, Europe and the country. In line with this, participants in the tripartite dialogue in the sector worked out the basic principles related to the implementation of the objectives of cultural policy, namely:

• Moving towards the standards of European cultural institutions;
• Increasing social and creative performance in the institutions;
• Expanding the scope of social cultural activities;
• Intensifying the dialogue with the regions, municipalities and other cultural and educational institutions, NGOs;
• Implementing the Bulgarian musical culture in the European Union;
• Organising work and creative processes – social security rules, individual contracts, salary system, free and full-time artists;
• Developing the role of social dialogue, updating the relationship between employer and employee.

With the current government the social dialogue in the field is restored and agreed between the three parties – Ministry of Culture, trade unions and employers.

Violeta Zlateva, ISTUR