The tripartite Global Dialogue Forum on Employment Relationships in the Media and Culture Sector was held at the ILO, Geneva, from Wednesday, 14 to Thursday, 15 May 2014.
The FIM delegation consisted of the Secretariat and representatives from the following countries : Argentina, Finland, India, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Norway, United Kingdom, Switzerland. Unfortunately, the representative from the Gambian musicians union was not able to reach Geneva, following difficulties encountered in the visa delivery process.
Tripartite constituents addressed employment relationships in the media and culture sector (excludes graphical subsector), with a view to adopting points of consensus that would encourage future programme development and inform policy-making on the selected topic at the international, regional and national levels.
Governments need to ensure that competition legislation does not obstruct the right of workers to freedom of association
Among the adopted points of consensus, one should note an implicit reference to Recommendation 198 (paragraph 6) and a clear request addressed to governments as regards an efficient implementation of intellectual property rights of creative workers (paragraph 2 eand 7) as well as the necessity to limit the scope of competition rules in order to safeguard the right of workers to trade union represntation and social dialogue (paragraph 7):
6. A better understanding of the different types of employment relationships and other working arrangements in the media and culture sector is needed to assess which types constitute an employment relationship, and which ones constitute a civil or commercial relationship, bearing in mind that this exercise should not interfere with civil and commercial relationships, while at the same time ensuring that individuals in an employment relationship have the protection they are due.
2. […] Where intellectual property rights of performers, writers, directors and others exist, these include economic and moral rights, which should involve prompt remuneration for the work and/or subsequent royalty or residual payments.
7. […] Governments need to apply intellectual property protection laws and to ensure that competition legislation does not obstruct the right of media and culture workers to freedom of association or to engaging in social dialogue with their social partners.
In accordance with established procedures, they will be submitted to the Governing Body of the ILO at its 322nd Session in November 2014 for its consideration.