Collective bargaining agreements
There are many collective labour agreements (collectieve arbeidsovereenkomst, or CAO) in the performing arts, and more generally in the cultural sector. CAOs are labour agreements between employers and employees. This means that a CAO only applies to employees who are working for an employer. When this is not the case, the national legal agreements are enforced. The existing CAOs are mostly found in architecture, arts education, media (broadcasting, journalism, publishing houses), museums and exhibition halls, performing arts (dance, orchestras, theatre companies, and venues), public libraries, retail musical instruments and sheet music. Special trade unions exist to enforce or monitor these agreements.
Almost all art and cultural labour areas are organised in the Culture Federation (Federatie Cultuur), an umbrella employers’ organisation which monitors the results of annual collective bargaining between the large Dutch unions, the central government and the employers’ organisations, with respect to work and related conditions.
Platform ACCT
To develop fair labour market relations in the culture sector, Platform ACCT was established, and this organisation will have a place within the Cultural Basic Infrastructure (BIS) 2025-2028. As of that date Fair Pay is mandatory for all BIS institutions; the Fair Practice Code is a code of conduct to stimulate this. This implies, among other things, the using of existing Collective Labor Agreements in the sector.
Platform ACCT, together with other representatives of the cultural sector, draws attention to the effects of the generic policy for the labour market and social security for the cultural sector. Due to the specific characteristics of that sector, these sometimes have unintended or undesirable consequences. Examples are the plans for a mandatory basic disability insurance for self-employed professionals, the prevention of false self-employment and the effects of the Clarification of Assessment of Employment Relationships and Legal Suspicion Bill (VBAR) in the event of a low self-employed rate. The VBAR will likely come into force in July 2026.
Comments are closed.