Between all the chairs

Employment conditions for women in art and culture

Conference on May 4, 2002, 10 - 21h

Old City Hall Linz, 4th floor<7b>

• Marginal employment?
• Work contract?
• Free contract of employment?
• Trade license?
• Artists' insurance?
• What is best for whom?
• What do these "less regulated" contractual relationships look like from a tax and legal perspective?
• What are the pitfalls and what are the options?

A lot of questions that are also being asked more and more frequently by artists, cultural workers and cultural mediators. This conference offers answers from competent experts.

It is obvious that women are particularly affected by these working conditions - and they are often forced into precarious working situations.

"Atypical employees with high incomes and high qualifications are predominantly men who voluntarily work in these forms. Atypical employees with low incomes and lower qualifications are often women who are forced to work in these forms (labor market situation, etc.)." (Quote Elisabeth Rolzhauser ÖGB -Vienna).

Men are also welcome in the audience.

Conference fee:€ 10,-

Childcare will be provided during the presentations: Please let us know in good time if required, stating the age of the child.

Registration by April 26, 2002 at the latest at FIFTITU%, 0732-770353 or fiftitu@servus.at

The payment of the conference fee of EUR 10,- to the account of FIFTITU%, Oberbank Linz, BLZ 15 000, KntoNr. 711-2296/17

is also considered as registration

Program overview
Old City Hall Linz, Hauptplatz 1

10:00h Welcome - Representative of FIFTITU%
10:30h - 11:30h Tax law issues - Christine Hapala/Tax consultant/Vienna
12:00h - 13:00h Trade license yes or no? - Ursula B. Horak / Management consultant and business psychologist/Vienna

13:00h - 14:00h Lunch break (buffet included in the conference fee)
14:00h - 15:00h Insurance options - Elisabeth Rolzhauser/ ÖGB-Vienna
15:00h - 15:30h Childcare allowance - Ilse Hauder/Women's Office of the AK-OÖ
15:30h - 16:00h Problems for migrant women - Ayla Parmak/representative of the DIDF association
16:00h - 16:30h Artists' insurance - Juliane Alton/Managing Director of IG Freie Theaterarbeit/Vienna
Moderation: Martina Geroldinger

Presentation followed by a discussion
Cultural office "Transpublic", Alter Markt, Linz

19:00h- 21:00h (A)Typical woman - The effects of atypical employment relationships on women in the cultural sector
Elisabeth Mayerhofer, MEDIACULT/Vienna
Juliane Alton, Managing Director of the IG Freie Theaterarbeit

Program contents

• Tax law issues: income tax, value added tax...
  Christine Hapala, tax consultant with her own law firm in Vienna, specializing in freelancers, artists and part-time workers

  INCOME AND INCOME TAX
  -What is income
  ? - From what amount of profit do you pay income tax? - How high is the income tax? - How long do you have to keep the receipts?

  VAT AND SALES TAX
  - When do you have to write invoices with VAT? - What does a formally correct invoice look like?
  - What tax rates are there?...

  the self-employed person and social insurance
  - What is the difference between freelance contracts and contracts for work and services? - When do I have to pay health and pension insurance?...

• Trade license: What are the options? What are the pitfalls?
  Ursula B. Horak, management consultant and business psychologist, talks about the trade license as an (im)possibility in the pursuit of artistic activities.
  - What does it mean to be "commercially active"? - What is a certificate of competence? - What is an "operating facility"? - Which trade licenses are possible for artists? - How do I get "my trade license"? - What do I have to "take care of" and what runs automatically?
• Insurance-related questions
  will be clarified by Elisabeth Rolzhauser, Head of the ÖGB Social Contacts Department and the ÖGB Pensioners' Department:

You have a freelance employment contract or a contract for work. You expect answers to the following questions:
- Do I have any social protection at all?
- Do I have health insurance and receive sick pay? - What do I do if I don't have a job?
- Can I receive unemployment benefit or unemployment assistance? - Is there also a pension insurance for me? - Do I have to take care of everything myself? - As a marginally employed person, can I also afford health and pension insurance?

• Childcare allowance
  Ilse Hauder, representative of the Women's Office of the AK-OÖ gives an overview:
  - Who is entitled
  ? - How much additional income can I earn?
  - How long do I receive childcare allowance? - What problems can arise? (Protection of the workplace...)
• Migrant women
  Ayla Parmak, representative of the Turkish-Kurdish workers' association DIDF/Linz, provides information on special requirements and problems for migrants in atypical employment
• Artists' insurance
  Juliane Alton is the managing director of IG Freie Theaterarbeit, which supports independent theater professionals throughout Austria.
  - Am I insured?
  - Should I be insured?
  - How do I pay my contributions? - Are my children also insured? - Will I receive a pension in the distant future that I can live on? Challenging questions that not every (artist) has an answer to straight away.

  The state holds us accountable and demands social security contributions from all earned income. Conversely, we should also be able to hold the state to account so that we are not left without benefits from the "community of solidarity" in the event of illness, accidents at work, when children are born and in old age.

• (A)Tpyisch Frau - The effects of atypical employment relationships on women in the cultural sector

  Presentation followed by a discussion
  - Elisabeth Mayerhofer, MEDIACULT/Vienna
  - Juliane Alton, Managing Director of IG Freie Theaterarbeit

  Flexibility, the new key concept in the labor market, has now also entered the cultural sector. However, has this changed the real situation for women? Hasn't it always been the case that women did most of the invisible background work in cultural institutions, while permanent positions and management posts were predominantly held by men? What is changing at the moment are the guiding principles and the associated values: Terms such as "cultural entrepreneurship" mark a shift in political discourse that can have fatal consequences, especially for women.