Italy’s live events sector has welcomed a significant step forward for “historic” legislation that would introduce a guaranteed income for performing arts workers.
The Senate’s Culture and Labour Committee has now passed the Delegated Bill on Entertainment, which includes an amendment introducing the ‘discontinuity allowance’, a measure that recognises preparation, training and study times as integral parts of working life within the sector. The bill now moves to Parliament, where if passed it will become law.
Trade groups were delighted by the committees’ decision, saying that reform was necessary after the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is claimed that the sector has lost one in five workers over the last two years.
“Today is a historic day, there is no other way to define it,” said a spokesperson for the La Musica Che Gira association. “A day that comes after two years that would not fit in a declaration, but contain many things, from those who told us that nothing would change to all the hours spent on Zoom working together with so many people who today we must thank. They know what role they played and how important it was.”
It is still to be decided who exactly would benefit from the allowance as well as how much it would be worth.
The approved text also includes the recognition of the profession of live entertainment agent and the establishment of a permanent sector body.
Vincenzo Spera, the president of the Assomusica live music trade group, said: “We appreciated the improvements made by the commissions with respect to the issue of building a first universal welfare for workers in the supply chain and the recognition of the figure of live clubs within the sector. One of the aims of the bill is to restore some aspects of Franceschini Law on live, music and entertainment, approved at the end of the 2017, which unfortunately remained unimplemented.”
Andrea Orlando, the Minister of Labour and Social Policies, said: “With the approval of the Senate Culture and Labour commissions to the Delegated Bill on show we take another step towards the extension of rights and protections to the workers of the sector.”