The fight against COVID19 is having an unprecedented impact not just on our economies but also on the entertainment sector. As theaters, cinemas, festivals and shows of all shape and size are cancelled or closed, performers are facing a sudden and worrying lack of revenue. Most emergency measures now require everyone to implement social distancing and other safety measures into their work patterns or, alternatively, to work from home. Needless to say, this is hardly possible for performers.
As performers see their job opportunities vanish, they struggle to get benefits to compensate for these income losses and help them get by. Contrary to workers in standard employment, performers have a highly irregular employment pattern, with multiple short-term contracts punctuated by recurring unemployment periods. Where they have employment status, despite the atypical nature of their work, this job loss may prejudice their ability to build enough rights to claim social benefits. In many other instances, performers deemed independent contractors may have no social security to fall back on during this crisis.
FIA has created a specific page to share resources and information regarding repercussions of the COVID19 Crisis for performers. This new section is organized into 4 categories:
1. Statements by industry partners and FIA unions
2. Union support and recommendations for performers
3. Initiatives (e.g. surveys) to assess the impact of this crisis among the performer community
4. Governmental / Public bodies’ initiatives regarding new funding schemes, re-adjustments of existing schemes and special relief measures for the for the arts and entertainments sector and performers
In order to help our global membership argue convincingly for ad hoc relief measures to help performers withstand this hardship, and in order to give everyone access to information about what’s being done elsewhere, we are seeking to collect data and invite members to send any useful information (e.g. statements, position papers, links, etc.) to the FIA secretariat.
FIA also aims to get a better sense of the actual size of the Covid-19 crisis among the performer community and get further understanding of the extent to which responsive measures targeting our sector, existing employment regulations and/or adaptations of the same have proven beneficial to artists. To collect more precise information at national level, the secretariat is currently running an online survey among its membership (results will be made available as soon as possible).
In the meantime, we invite you to visit the general resource page available here: https://fia-actors.com/resources/covid19-crisis/
