Recognise Artists as Workers
Sign the open letter for a legislated Visual Arts Award to be included in the new National Cultural Policy.
Later this year, the Federal Government is launching a new National Cultural Policy. A founding principle of the new policy framework is recognising artists as workers.
Currently, many visual artists and arts workers are underpaid, with little opportunity to negotiate their fees and wages.
When visual artists and arts workers ask to be paid for their work, and paid decently, it is because the people behind the artworks and experiences that audiences across Australia love, deserve to be compensated for their time and labour. It is time to recognise artists as workers.
That’s why NAVA is amping up the pressure to ensure a legislated Award for the visual arts, craft and design sector is included in the new policy.
We need your help to ensure Arts Minister Tony Burke honours his commitment to support artists as workers and celebrate their role as the creators of culture.
As part of the new National Cultural Policy, we’re calling on the Federal Government to:
- Establish an Award for the visual arts, craft and design sector that mandates the adequate payment of artists and arts workers for their work and includes standard entitlements as recognised under the national workplace relations system.
- Extend the small claims jurisdiction in the Fair Work Division of the Court to assist artists to resolve disputes without recourse to costly legal proceedings.
- Introduce or trial a basic income scheme for artists and arts workers to address the financial instability caused by intermittent, periodic and project-based nature of working in the arts.
- Ensure Centrelink recognises the professional work of artists and arts workers as employment-seeking activities.
- Amend the Superannuation Guarantee Act to include visual artists, craft and design practitioners.
- Increase funding through both the Australia Council for the Arts and the Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support (IVAIS) program for artists, galleries and organisations.
How to support our campaign
- Sign the visual arts, craft and design sector open letter
- Share the open letter via social media #RecogniseArtistsAsWorkers
- Write to your Arts Ministers
- Join NAVA
Why an Award?
Awards are legal documents that outline the minimum pay rates and conditions of employment. There are more than 100 industry or occupation awards that cover the majority of people who work in Australia, including live performance artists and arts workers under the Live Performance Award.
Currently, the lack of regulation, continuity and clarity through a legal framework for the visual arts means many employers, employees and artists themselves, find it difficult to determine and negotiate appropriate rates of pay for their work. The recommended payment standards set out in NAVA’s Code of Practice continue to be voluntary, rather than mandatory. This leaves the door open for exploitation in many forms: from the underpayment of artists by government funded arts organisations, to the use of digital content without appropriate remuneration.
Without an award, most artists and arts workers will also miss out on any increases to fees and wages gained through enterprise bargaining and award processes decided by the Commission.
Rather than establishing a legal framework in the new National Cultural Policy that recognises artists as workers, NAVA has heard of discussions to include an ombudsman type structure within the Australia Council for artists and arts workers to report payment complaints against federally funded organisations.
NAVA is concerned that this proposal not only draws arts funding away from artists to duplicate the function of the Fair Work Commission, but will contribute to division within a precariously underfunded sector and will do nothing to legislate the adequate payment of artists and arts workers for their work across the entire sector.
What would an Award for the Visual Arts look like?
NAVA’s newly revised national Code of Practice for Visual Arts, Craft and Design (the Code) provides important pay guidelines for employers of artists. Developed through extensive consultation with artists, arts workers, sector networks and advisors across the visual arts, craft and design sector, the Code offers a useful starting point for the development of a legally enforceable Award framework.
After that, NAVA recommends the Government undergo further consultation with the sector and engage appropriate legal and industrial expertise. The Live Performance Award provides a good example of the kind of depth that needs to be included.
Industrial Rights
Ongoing inequities for visual arts, craft practitioners and designers stem from the lack of adequate definitions of ‘artist’ and ‘art work’ in the rules that govern industrial relations and work conditions. An Award should go hand-in-hand with a set of bespoke visual arts workforce laws to streamline the current patchwork system in which many arts employers are forced to work.
This should include extending the small claims jurisdiction in the Fair Work Division of the Court to assist artists to resolve disputes without recourse to costly legal proceedings, ensuring Centrelink recognises the professional work of artists and arts workers as employment-seeking activities and amending the Superannuation Guarantee Act to include visual artists, craft and design practitioners.
Media enquiries
e: media@visualarts.net.au
Image: Nadia Hernández, 2022.
[ID: Graphic image with white block text on bright coloured green, orange, blue and pink shapes on a black background. Text reads: Recognise Artists as Workers.]
