On 27 January 2022, the Minister of Culture, Sam Tanson, presented the draft of the bill n°7948 on the institution of a cultural leave and the modification of: 1° of the Labour Code; 2° of the modified law of the 16th of April 1979 establishing the general status of State civil servants; 3° of the modified law of the 24th of December 1985 establishing the general status of communal civil servants.
The reintroduction of cultural leave following the repeal of the law of the 12th of July 1994 establishing cultural leave in 2014 has been a strong demand from the cultural sector for years. The purpose of cultural leave is to allow participation in high-level cultural events or recognized events that are not part of the applicant's main professional activity, or to offer the possibility of participating in specialized training in the cultural field organized by an approved body. Three categories of persons may be granted cultural leave: cultural actors, administrative executives or persons designated by federations, national networks or associations in the cultural sector.
The Minister stressed that this reintroduction should "allow artists to find a balance between their professional life and the practice of their art, and even allow them to make a transition towards professionalization as an artist", but that it is also "essential to strengthen voluntary work in the cultural sector, as it is becoming increasingly complicated for federations and associations to find committed people to pursue these activities alongside their professional life.”
Among the main changes is the replacement of the maximum number of days of leave spread over the entire professional career by a maximum number of days of leave spread annually, in order to ensure a greater flexibility. The number of days of leave granted per year depends on the category of beneficiaries. A derogation from the annual limits must be made by means of a written request, duly motivated, addressed to the Ministry of Culture.
The new bill also introduces a new category of people who can benefit from cultural leave, namely designated volunteers. This allows cultural federations and associations to give designated persons the benefit of cultural leave, thanks to a quota of leave days available to them. This category of beneficiaries is primarily aimed at volunteers involved in the organization of cultural events.
Another point is the reduction of the time limit for submitting an application from 3 to 2 months.
This bill aims to enhance the value of cultural work and the professionalization of the cultural and artistic scene, to recognize the cultural work done and the efforts of the volunteers contributing to it.
The reform of the law is the subject of recommendation 28 of the Kulturentwécklungsplang 2018-2028 ("KEP"), which deals with the need to reintroduce cultural leave in order to allow the development of the cultural and artistic scene and to modernize the legal framework to adapt it to the current needs of the cultural sector.
Press release by the Ministry of Culture