Faced with major challenges during the pandemic, workers and employers have been pulling together. Fresh research finds that the crisis situation led to stronger cooperation between different actors in the commercial live performance sector and has even created new connections where there were none.
The European Social Partners in live performance – Pearle* on the employers’ side and EAEA (FIM, FIA, and UNI MEI) on the workers’ side – have been working together to map the situation of social dialogue in the commercial live performance sector in five countries: Bulgaria, Czechia, Poland, Romania, and Serbia.
The objective of this work has been to see whether social dialogue exists in this sector, whether there are some obstacles to social dialogue, and what could be done to remove those obstacles to establish and strengthen social dialogue. A mapping of the situation was implemented in each project country to this end. The sector is shaped by a range of formal and less formal agreements, and varying forms of employment relationships. The mapping of the situation shows that social dialogue needs to adapt to this reality and that traditional social partners need to find ways to better understand and represent the interests of workers with atypical work arrangements and of institutions with complex formal statuses.
On 8 and 9 June 2021, the project came to conclusion with a final conference. The conference brought together the research at national level but also looked at good practice from other regions, such as how to reach out to young workers and atypical workers, and how to set up an employer organisation. Further, the conference looked at the impacts of the pandemic on the sector, highlighting a positive example of strengthened collaboration between the social partners.
As theatres and live venues begin to reopen across Europe, strong cooperation between workers and employers can lay the foundation for a positive outlook.
In conclusion of the work, the European social partners propose some measures that can support social dialogue at national level.
The research took place in the framework of a European funded project and is available in English, Bulgarian, Czech, Polish, Romanian and Serbian. The conclusions of the final conference is also available here.
