Unions and employers in Germany launch job portal for refugees in the culture, film and media sectors

A network of employers’ associations and trade unions in the culture, film and media sector, together with its partner Jobnet AG, has launched a portal that targets refugees and bundles job offers. The job portal for is multilingual (Ukrainian, German, English or Russian) and is aimed at refugees whom the war in Ukraine is forcing into exile in Germany.

“We want to send a strong signal of solidarity to all war refugees who are currently unable to work in their home countries as cultural, film or media professionals or journalists due to the war in Ukraine. For the exile here in our society, employers and trade unions want to make a contribution to building up a professional life in the previous professions. The cruel causes of flight and the ongoing war in Ukraine touch us all. But our colleagues fleeing to us are not alone. We want them as future colleagues in theatres, orchestras, film productions, radio stations, media companies and publishing houses,” explained Christoph Schmitz, ver.di national board member.

The job portal offers practical solidarity and lists job offers for cultural, film and media workers in Germany. From its launch, there are almost 50,000 vacancies in the relevant sectors in Germany, and after the start of the portal, more jobs will be added continuously by the network members. Some of these will also be aimed specifically at refugees.

In the course of further developing the job portal, additional functions such as community pages and the offer of basic language courses are to be activated in the near future. Ukrainian employees of Jobnet AG from the besieged cities of Kiev or Lviv have also worked on the development of this offer in recent weeks.

“Refugees possess a wealth of skills and know-how. Escaping from war, with all the trauma it inflicts, does not erase people’s professional experience. Host countries can and must build on this rather than look the other way. We must not allow sharks to exploit the vulnerable status of refugees by locking them into marginalized work. This is a prime example of how unions and employers can work together to value these competences and provide the security refugees crave through opportunities for decent work,” said Oliver Roethig, Regional Secretary of UNI Europa.

Check out the job portal here.