Mapping Social Dialogue in the Commercial Live Performance Sector in Bulgaria, Czechia, Poland, Romania and Serbia

Annex 3. Country report: Poland Mapping social dialogue in the commercial live performance sector in Bulgaria, Czechia, Poland, Romania and Serbia Agnieszka Paczyńska March 2021 With the financial support of the European Commission Mapping social dialogue in the commercial live performance sector in Bulgaria, Czechia, Poland, Romania and Serbia Table of contents Executive summary 3 Introduction 6 Commercial live performance sector: a brief overview 7 Size 8 Key characteristics 9 Organisations 10 Individual performers 11 Business models 12 Social dialogue in the commercial live performance sector 16 Existing social partners 17 Other forms of self-organisation 19 Social dialogue - state of play 20 Key barriers to dialogue 20 What could stimulate dialogue? 21 The dialogue topics most important to stakeholder 23 The Covid-19 crisis and social dialogue 24 Recommendations: social dialogue for a stronger live performance sector 27 Annexes Country report: Bulgaria 31 Country report: Czech Republic 60 Country report: Poland 75 Country report: Romania 93 Country report: Serbia 113 This publication reflects only the author’s view, and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. Project number: VS/2019/0014 Executive summary This report maps the social dialogue situation in the commercial live performance sector in five European countries: Bulgaria, Czechia, Poland, Romania and Serbia. The sector covers all music, theatre, dance, circus and similar live performance activities run by private for-profit or not-for- profit entities operationally not fully dependent on the public sector even if partly rely on public subsidies. Precise statistics on the size of the sector in question are not available but existing data point to employment totalling around 100,000 in the five countries, while the number of entities concerned by far exceeds that of public institutions in the sector. Live performance entities take on a variety of legal forms: from businesses registered under different regimes, to one-person companies, non-governmental organisations and informal groups. It is not uncommon to find the same organisation simultaneously using different legal forms. The large majority of organisations are small, both in terms of employment and financial resources. Work relations between organisations and individual performers are governed by many different contract types. Regular employment contracts are rare, and the most commonly used contractual arrangements are the ones typical for project-based work, e.g. based on civil law or laws regulating intellectual property rights. The extent of voluntary work and informal work is substantial. Individual performers typically work with several organisations. The scarcity of regular employment contracts translates into often precarious situations concerning social insurance. Business models vary substantially within the sector, reflecting an interplay of internal and external constraints and opportunities facing performers and performing arts organisations. Project- based work is dominant, leading to short planning horizons. Public funding is important for many organisations, though others use it only to a small extent. The sector has learnt to function and gradually expand despite the inherent instability of important sources of revenue. The sector’s characteristics, and specifically its reliance on human interaction between performers and viewers, have made it very vulnerable to the Covid-19 pandemic. A substantial share of individual performers are registered as self-employed. At the same time, many organisations active in the sector make no use at all of regular employment contracts, blurring any distinction between employers and workers. Indeed, many performers are unable to clearly identify with either. Trade union membership is low in all countries analysed, and the characteristics of the commercial live performance sector make it yet more difficult to build up any effective trade union representation. Employer associations have been gradually building up their capacities, though membership remains low in the sector. The weakness of trade unions and employer organisations alike is mainly attributable to the prevalence of non-standard employment contracts and the small size of almost all performing arts organisations. Mapping social dialogue in the commercial live performance sector in Bulgaria, Czechia, Poland, Romania and Serbia Executive summary In such an environment the importance of other forms of self-organisation increases. Recent years have seen several attempts to create and strengthen such forms, with partial success. Flexibility to adapt to local conditions and focus on specific problems important to sector stakeholders, the lack of formal requirements on representativeness, and the ability to access funding from various sources are just some of the factors conducive to creating and developing such initiatives. The weakness of traditional social partners translates into hardly existing formalised social dialogue in the commercial live performance sector. While collective agreements do exist in the live performance sector, e.g. in Bulgaria and Serbia, they apply mainly to the public side of the sector. In Serbia, one collective agreement covers the work of estrada musicians and performers in the hospitality sector. At the same time, interesting dialogue initiatives have emerged in recent years outside the formalised national social dialogue framework. Key barriers to strengthening social dialogue are related to limited knowledge and awareness of its practical modalities, the lack of a culture of cooperation and trust, the weakness of existing bodies grouping individual performers and institutions active in the sector and the lack of time and other resources. With many stakeholders declaredly interested in social dialogue, broad consensus would seem to exist on topics worth discussing. These relate to funding sources for the sector, pay, making it easier to bring organisations and individual performers together, flexible working arrangements, working conditions more broadly, and social security. While constituting a major blow to the sector, the Covid-19 pandemic clearly illustrates the potential value of coming together to formulate realistic policy proposals. The sector’s weak self- organisation capacity and its consequent inability to advance its interests in a policy dialogue with the government have become evident. In such an environment, the crisis has however stimulated self-organisation, with new organisations representing the sector emerging and membership of existing organisations increasing. The pandemic has shown the importance of platforms to exchange information and develop practical solutions for the sector, while at the same time giving a strong boost to various forms of dialogue among stakeholders and with public institutions. Fostering social dialogue is best done from within. Traditional social partners and newly emerging forms of self-organisation are key in this respect. Stakeholders need to be prepared to think out- of-the-box and to adapt to change. The legacy of the pandemic is likely to increase the pace of change impacting the sector. While the future development of work relations is difficult to foresee, the sector is likely to remain defined by the joint efforts of individuals and organisations bound together by diverse formal and less formal agreements. This reality needs to be better understood by those promoting and/or participating in social dialogue. Traditional social partners will need to leave their comfort zones. At a minimum they will need to find ways to open their doors to stakeholders from the sector’s commercial side. Social partners will also need to find ways to better understand and represent the interests of performers with atypical work arrangements and of organisations with complex formal statuses, yet not necessarily having many employees. 4 Mapping social dialogue in the commercial live performance sector in Bulgaria, Czechia, Poland, Romania and Serbia Executive summary Governments will have a large role to play. In the short term, measures focused on helping the sector to survive the pandemic are key. In the longer term, consistent efforts fostering social dialogue in the sector are necessary, albeit challenging. Consultation and cooperation on support schemes and on the development of post-Covid policies remain important. European associations could support domestic institutions in the five countries by sharing good practices and specific solutions that have worked well in other countries. Mapping social dialogue in the commercial live performance sector in Bulgaria, Czechia, Poland, Romania and Serbia Introduction This report is one of the final outcomes of the project initiated by and carried out for the European social partners in the live performance sector. The focus is on five European countries: Czechia, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Poland. The project and the report aim to: Describe the commercial live performance sector; Assess the state of social dialogue in the sector; Suggest ways for promoting and fostering social dialogue. For the purpose of this study the commercial live performance sector is understood to cover a wide range of performances delivered in the physical presence of an audience, both for-profit and not- for-profit, fully or partially independent of public funding. It involves in particular theatre, music, dance, circus and other stage productions

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