Portugal/ 4.2 Specific policy issues and recent debates  

4.2.9 Employment policies for the cultural sector

Table 1 provides some material for the analysis of employment in the arts in different sectors and by gender. While a complete breakdown is not currently available, progress has indeed been made to track the number of people working in various artistic professions. The Table below does not include independent or freelance professionals, which explain the lower than expected number shown for those working in music or in visual and performing arts.

Table 1:     Share of professionals working in different art sectors, in %, 2004

Source:      Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity, Quadros de Pessoal, 2004.

The last and current government's programme for the culture sector include the intention to review the legal status of cultural professionals, the definition of a new welfare and pension system and the taxation of work tools, providing safeguards in particular for the independent nature of artistic work. In this context, Law 4/2008 represents an important step forward establishing the juridical regime for employment contracts of performing arts professionals, having in attention labour specificities of the sector and focusing permanent work contracts. However, key aspects such as professional qualifications and pension and welfare arrangements were postponed for future regulation. Some of those issues were addressed in a recently approved amendment (Law 28/2011), such as extending the juridical regime to professionals other than artists (technicians and mediators), allowing for simultaneous contracts with different employers and generally reinforcing the legal obligation of a formal contract or the presumption of contractual obligations when there is an informal professional relationship.

Your Comments on this Chapter?