The announcement of the Federation of Theatre Organizations of Cyprus is seen as a setback against actors and their pursuit of labor rights, according to their unions.
The Union of Actors of Cyprus and the Theatre Artists of PEO issued a joint statement expressing their surprise at the announcement made by the collective body of the five historic theaters of Cyprus.
The actors’ unions note that they have consistently faced resistance whenever they appealed to the Federation for negotiations regarding the renewal of the Collective Agreement.
They further affirm that they have always been available for discussion, characterizing the Federation’s statement as an “unjustified attack,” which accuses the unions of an uncompromising stance.
The positions of the Union of Actors and PEO have been communicated both to the Federation and to the Theatre Collective, stating that they:
a) do not compromise on issues regarding the minimum wage and the duration of contracts, and
b) accept the Federation’s proposal for a reduction in the amounts of the Welfare Fund and the non-payment of the 13th salary for the first half of 2024, given that they will proceed to sign the Agreement as it is.
They also point out that the theater organizations had the time, since the announcement of the renewed Thymeli Plan, to revise their proposals based on the criteria of the Agreement, knowing that it is now a prerequisite, but they did not do so.
“Instead, just three days before the deadline set by the Ministry of Labor, once again, the actors were expected to yield under the threat of unemployment. And now that they have been left out of funding due to their own responsibility, the members of the Federation are directing their fire towards us,” note the two unions.
It is further emphasized that the actors’ bodies, after 12 years of struggle, “have managed to achieve, with the reintegration of the Collective Agreement into the Thymeli Plan as a prerequisite, the obvious: no public funding without a collective agreement.”
The joint statement of the Union of Actors and PEO also states that the renewal of the Collective Agreement of the Free Theatres has been pending since 2012.
Since then, the calls for renewal from both unions have been constant and annual. “Equally constant and annual was the refusal of the organizations to meet us, ignoring our calls.”
In the history of the case, from their perspective, the two unions note that in 2016, THOC, with the Thymeli plan, “wrongly excluded the mandatory observance of the collective agreement, thus facilitating producers to enter into personal contracts with terms inferior to those of the Collective Agreement, pushing actors either into undeclared work or self-employment, thereby depriving them of their collective rights and acquired rights.”
In 2017, a meeting was held at the offices of the Union of Actors in the presence of the two trade union organizations and several but not all theater organizations.
The theater organizations refused to sign the renewal of the agreement, rejecting the following essential articles:
(a) the minimum wage set by the agreement, which is €1100 gross.
(b) the duration of employment defined by the agreement, which is three months (they proposed two-month contracts).
(c) the payment of Welfare, Prosperity, Leave, and 13th salary funds
(d) the obligation to pay social security contributions by the employer.
“After general assemblies with our members, the general demand was for the contracts regarding the minimum wage and the minimum employment time to remain as they are. Since then, we have not stopped calling on the organizations to negotiate, where we consistently encountered a ‘wall,'” they explain.
Furthermore, it is noted that in 2020, when we were faced with the pandemic and the conditions revealed all the pathologies of the industry, “we entered the battle more dynamically for the renewal of the Collective Agreement and held meetings with some theater organizations. In response to our call, the members of the now Theater Organizations Federation once again refused to engage in dialogue with us, citing their waiting for the establishment of the Deputy Ministry of Culture and the increase in the budget for independent theater. We then sent proposals, making tremendous concessions, but the response we received was that they did not wish to discuss with us and that the existing agreement was not valid.”
“This attitude forced us together, the two collective bodies of actors, in 2022 to lodge a complaint with the Ministry of Labor, which forced the theater organizations to sit down with us to find solutions. Their proposals were insulting and included a reduction in the minimum wage set by the agreement to the national minimum wage, which was then €900 gross, two-month contracts, hourly work, non-payment of Welfare, Prosperity, and Leave funds. And then the Ministry of Labor decided that although the Collective Agreement has not been renewed, it remains in force, and that all theater organizations have been operating irregularly for so many years.”
“Since then, we have sent many invitations for a meeting with them so that we can meet with the then Deputy Minister of Culture; their refusal remained steadfast, and we reached today. We informed both the Federation and the Collective about our positions.”
“We have always been available to discuss. This is proven by the letters we have been sending you in recent years. We stood by your side for years, working for starvation wages, within a very tight timeframe to implement your proposals,” the actors further note.
“Even now, and after this unwarranted attack, we believe that only united and supportive can we find real solutions and demand better treatment of Culture and its people from the State,” concludes the joint statement of the unions.
