A functioning system of employee protections is one of the great achievements of the enlightened world. Our legislation, as well as collective agreements, aim to curb excessive demands, up to and including exploitation, by employers. Rules that must often be formulated in general terms for this purpose — from upper limits on working hours (and mandated averaging periods) via entitlements to rest and caregiver leave to sick-leave regulations and maternity protection — can sometimes turn into a boomerang and harm the very people they are meant to protect more than they help them. When these regulations also affect the self-employed, like many artists, this boomerang can hit even harder: They suddenly are “protected” from performing and left without income, even though from a medical and personal point of view they could safely continue to work.
Especially in our cultural sector, whose funding is always the first to be questioned in difficult economic times, we must constantly ask which regulations are truly necessary. We must be willing to discuss and question, without taboo, practices we have long accepted as “the way things are done.” If funders, employers and employees do not find a joint way into the future, difficult times lie ahead.