Fighting insecurity in the cultural sector

In its press release of last March 1, the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions (SGB), to which the SMV is affiliated, in cooperation with the cultural associations, advocated fair remuneration and improved social security (particularly with regard to AHV and unemployment insurance) for cultural workers. These measures must become part of national cultural policy, and the SGB welcomes the Federal Council's decision to establish "Culture as a world of work" as a priority area of action for the next four years, in accordance with the draft of the 2025-28 Cultural Dispatch, which the Federal Council approved at its meeting on March 1 and forwarded to Parliament.

According to calculations by the Federal Statistical Office in 2022, around 259,000 people work in the cultural sector full-time and a further 22,700 in a second cultural profession. In total, this corresponds to 6% of the working population in Switzerland. It is therefore a very important sector with more employees than, for example, the financial sector (218,000 employees in 2022). The SGB points out that atypical working conditions have multiplied in the cultural world: "The employment of many cultural professionals is characterized by fixed-term, project-based contracts, part-time jobs and multiple jobs. They often have very low incomes and little social protection." On behalf of Suisseculture and Pro Helvetia, Ecoplan 2021 conducted a comprehensive study on the social security of cultural professionals in Switzerland. It revealed that 59% of them had an annual income of less than CHF 40,000 in the three years before the coronavirus pandemic, i.e. less than CHF 3,075 per month (including 13th month's salary). The study shows that occupational pension provision is incomplete: for 32% of employees and 66% of self-employed persons, the income from their cultural activity is not covered by the second pillar, and 3% and 16% respectively do not even pay into the AHV/IV/EO. In addition, 5% of employees and 10% of self-employed persons are not insured against accidents, while 31% of employees and 50% of self-employed persons stated that they did not have daily sickness benefits insurance (although in the case of employees, it is possible that they were not informed by their employer that they were adequately insured).

The SGB emphasizes that the associations of cultural professionals, including the SMV, play a key role in ensuring that their members have good working conditions, a decent income and access to social security. In order to achieve these goals, it is essential that CLA wages and salary and fee recommendations are respected. State cultural funding should also guarantee them; the federal government's intention to ensure that applicants undertake to pay professional artists appropriately when assessing applications for support is a good omen. The cultural message also proposes, among other things, to extend the provisions for cultural professionals in the AHV, to make the simplified settlement procedure better known, to examine the possibility of creating a collective pension fund for all cultural professionals and to specify the advice and support for professional artists. With regard to the last point, if the desired objectives are to be achieved, it is absolutely essential that these services are based on existing services, with the involvement of professional associations, which have all the necessary skills and irreplaceable experience and in-depth knowledge of the sector.

Even if the federal program is ambitious, the funding (average nominal growth of 1.2% and real growth of 0.2% per year) is at least unbalanced; a significant increase in funding is therefore essential, especially as it is counteracted by other decisions in the name of spending caps, such as the linear cut of 2% in the 2024 budget, the reduction in the growth rate of cultural spending and a new cut of 1.4% that is imminent. The trade unions are calling for these cuts, which make it impossible to realize some of the numerous objectives of cultural policy, to be abandoned.