Employment in the cultural sector is governed by the general provisions of the French Labour Code, supplemented by sector-specific legislation and collective agreements. This combination is particularly important in activities characterised by short production cycles, project-based employment and multiple employers, notably live performance, cinema and audiovisual production.
A distinctive feature of French labour law is the legal treatment of performing artists (artistes du spectacle). Under Article L.7121-3 of the Labour Code, contracts engaging a performing artist for remuneration are presumed to be employment contracts, subject to the conditions laid down by law. This presumption applies regardless of the mode or amount of remuneration or the designation given to the contract by the parties. It provides an important distinction between the creation of an original work and its performance: while artists-authors are generally remunerated in connection with their creative activity and rights in their works, performers may be employed as salaried workers (Labour Code, Articles L.7121-3 and L.7121-4).
Cultural employers may also use fixed-term contracts adapted to activities in which permanent employment is not customary. The contrat à durée déterminée d’usage (CDDU) is permitted in designated sectors including live performance, cultural activities, audiovisual production, film production and phonographic publishing. Its use is further regulated by collective agreements and is generally restricted to occupations for which temporary employment is customary. The CDDU is therefore central to project-based cultural production but does not constitute a general authorisation to employ all cultural workers on successive fixed-term contracts (Labour Code, Article L.1242-2 and Article D.1242-1).
Collective bargaining plays a major role in adapting employment conditions to the diversity of cultural activities. Sectoral collective agreements regulate matters such as minimum pay, working time, job classifications, rehearsals, travel and other occupation-specific conditions. Separate agreements apply across fields including public and private live performance, audiovisual production, film production and other cultural industries. Labour regulation in culture is therefore largely structured through professional branches rather than through a single framework for cultural workers.
The use of discontinuous contracts is closely connected to the specific unemployment insurance rules associated with intermittence du spectacle (see chapter 4.1.3). The two frameworks should nevertheless be distinguished: labour law governs employment relationships and the use of contracts, whereas the specific rules on intermittence concern unemployment insurance between periods of salaried employment.
Working conditions have also gained prominence in cultural policy and sectoral regulation. In 2025, the Ministry of Culture launched a 2025–2027 plan to strengthen prevention and action against gender-based and sexual violence and harassment across the cultural sector. Measures include stronger prevention and training, reporting and support mechanisms, and the use of public-funding conditionality. In the film sector, access to CNC production support has been subject since 2025 to mandatory training requirements for film crews on the prevention of gender-based and sexual violence and harassment (Ministry of Culture, Plan de lutte contre les violences et le harcèlement sexistes et sexuels dans la culture 2025–2027; CNC, 2025).
French cultural labour regulation thus combines general employment law with sector-specific contractual rules and collective bargaining. Its main distinctive feature lies less in a separate body of cultural labour law than in the adaptation of general labour law to the organisation of artistic and cultural production.
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