Teaching, mentoring, internationalising their work, organising tours and other professional tasks will now be taken into account in the assessment for acquiring the status of self-employed in the cultural sector in Slovenia. The national government has recently amended the regulations to combat precariousness in the sector, based on the principle that 'every job counts'.
The rationale behind the changes is that, in addition to their core cultural activities, professionals in the cultural sector also carry out a wide range of other activities, such as education, mentoring, internationalising their work, organising tours and other professional tasks. This work, which is essential for achieving excellence in the cultural field, will now be assessed and taken into account alongside artistic quality. The quality of the applicant's work and its contribution to the development of the field, the applicant's references, nominations for prizes and awards, contribution to the accessibility, internationalisation or cross-sectoral involvement of culture and contribution to the development of skills related to the field of work will be assessed by the expert juries.
The new scoring system also takes into account the fact that in some fields there are no prizes or that prizes are awarded to collective work rather than to an individual. Reference is also no longer limited to media coverage, but also includes the role of professional associations and reference institutions, and takes into account the possibility of quality work by the self-employed outside the major urban centres, which is less likely to find a place in the mainstream media.
These changes mark the first major intervention in scope and quality criteria in a decade and redefine the criteria for self-employment status and the right to social security contributions from the national budget. The criteria are now the same for all professions and are added together in a modular way, bringing greater clarity and equal treatment.
As Dr Asta Vrečko, the Slovenian Minister of Culture, said on the occasion of the changes to the regulations: "Understanding the nature of the work of the self-employed in culture and their precarious situation is at the heart of these solutions. The regulation is now adapted to their real achievements, instead of the self-employed having to continue to adapt their artistic choices to the conditions of the regulation".
After almost ten years, the list of freelance cultural professions is also being redefined, in Slovenia, as many new professions have emerged in the meantime, especially those linked to new artistic and technological processes, many of them in the field of film. Nine new professions are introduced (assistant director, DJ, sound engineer, colourist, visual effects designer, transdisciplinary creator, visual performer (VJ), visual technical producer and continuity manager/scriptwriter). More than 20 professions are modified at the level of content or sector. Finally, the list of cultural prizes has been updated to include a much larger number of prizes in different fields, including those created in the last decade.
According to the Slovenian Ministry of Culture, the amendments to the regulation were made in dialogue with the professional community and constitute an important basis for further measures to improve the working and social situation of self-employed people in the cultural sector.
--
Photo credit: Mostafameraji
Photo source
