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People's Party CDS-PP
Parliamentary Group
Assembly of the Republic-Palace of S. Bento-1249-068 Lisbon-Phone: 21391 9233-Fax: 21391 7456 Email: gp_pp@pp. parliamento.pt
DRAFT RESOLUTION NO. 48 /X
Recommends to the Government the establishment of a Laboral, Fiscal and Protection Regime
Special Social for the Workers of the Arts of the Spectacle
The Performing Arts has always been a key pillar of Culture and of
all cultural activity in Portugal. Currently, the importance of these activities is
by all recognized and, thankfully, this sector has been expanding, benefiting
of ever greater visibility. This development is mainly due to the huge
effort by all workers who, often facing great difficulties and
gigantic obstacles, dedicate themselves of soul and heart to the Arts and Spectacles, giving
thus an invaluable contribution to the strengthening and growth of the area of Culture
in Portugal.
So, as it is natural, the expansion of the Spectacle Arts sector itself
has been accompanied by a large increase in professionals working in such areas
diverse as the Music, Theatre or Dance, among others. Are professionals who if
they dedicate to an activity that demands a lot from each of them, and that in most of the
sometimes it has just as compensation the sense of personal achievement by the creation
artistic.
The professions connected to the Arts of the Spectacle are very diverse, but they have all
a very characteristic trait: its own specificity. Hence, it becomes every time
more urgent to trace the profile of these professions, and promote their proper
legal framework, with a view to an appropriate and fair social protection regime and
labour.
In the field of the Arts of the Spectacle, we are in most cases before
professions with very particular characteristics, namely:
Irregular work schedules, often with predominance on the purposes of
week, holidays or at night (depending on the spectacles);
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Alternance of periods of great activity with periods of little activity
or relative inactivity;
Frequent recourse to polyvalence;
In Some cases, fast wear and short duration of the profession itself (as, by
example, the case of the dancers and some circus performers);
Permanent mobility of employment (multiplicity of employers and duration
limited of the contractual links).
Urge, therefore, to find for this sector solutions and special regimes, either in the
labour camp itself, either in the field of social security, or still in
tax matter.
Given the specificities of schedules, the permanent employment mobility, the
frequent recourse to polyvalence, and the temporary nature of most of these activities,
we can only conclude that the general rules of the Labor Code are insufficient for
ensure adequate protection for these professionals. The absence of rules
specific is potentiating the use of completely unsuitable instruments
to the situations in question. A good example of this, is the increasingly frequent use
of service contracts, to the detriment of contracts of employment.
In the case of social security, the existence of fast and short wear occupations
duration justifies, with all certainty, the existence of special schemes of aposting
early, as well as from own systems of accidents at work and diseases
professionals. We are facing careers that end much earlier than it is
customary, so the impact of a work accident can be much higher, and the
incapacity tables do not correspond to the specificities inherent in these
professions. In the latter case, it should be pointed out that there is already a specific regime of
remediation of the emerging damage from accidents at work of sports practitioners
professionals, which could be a good starting point for the establishment of a regime
similar for the professionals of the Arts of the Spectacle.
Finally, in the tax field, the alternation of periods of great activity with
periods of relative inactivity, as well as the short durability of working life,
should also be properly framed.
However, for the establishment of these particular schemes it is indispensable to
establishment of a system that allows to recognize the possession of basic skills and of
certain conditions that ensure fairness in access to these special regimes.
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The Assembly of the Republic resolves, in accordance with Article 166º (5) of the
Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, recommend to the Government that:
1-Until the end of the legislature, create the special schemes needed to promote a
labour, tax and social protection framework, which allows for more treatment
fair and equitable the workers of the Arts of the Spectacle.
2-For this purpose, it promotes the realization of a study that makes the diagnosis concerning
to the legal situation of the workers of the Arts of the Spectacle, specifically in the
Areas of Social Security, labour law, accidents at work and
occupational diseases, vocational training and the tax framing of these
activities.
3-Discuss this diagnosis with all representatives of the sector, so that the
your contributions and suggestions can be included in the findings of the diagnosis.
Lisbon, June 24, 2005
The Deputies of the CDS-PP,