“One of my great objectives is that culture ceases to be associated with work precariousness.” This was one of the statements with which the Minister of Culture Ernest Urtasun responded to Eldiario.es, when asked about his plans to improve the conditions of the workers of the sector. The person in charge explained that, for this, he would continue to “deploy with all the force the framework of the artist’s statute”. His words did not go unnoticed by the Professional Association of Figuration Actors (APAF), which has written an open letter, to which this newspaper has had access, to detail what his casuistry is and ask him to be taken into account in the elaboration of the document.
“We mean that we exist, that our conditions are not appropriate and that the agreement is constantly breached. It is not an attack on the minister, it is a call for attention to our situation. We shout so that from above we know that we exist, ”says Juan Aguilar, vowel of the APAF, to this medium. In their statement, they claim that being a figuration actor is a profession, “on too many occasions” and has not been recognized by “no president of the Film Academy”, nor “worthy of being mentioned in any event” of the sector.
“It does not seem that we exist. You could say that sometimes they make us feel as if we were the lumpen of the audiovisual industry, ”they regret in the writing. eldiario.es has contacted the Minister of Culture, who also refers to the words he said in his interview with this newspaper: “We are working within the framework of the artist’s statute.” It also stands out among the “advances of the last legislature and this” is the IRPF reform approval which contemplates the intermittency of culture workers.
In the APAF text they claim that they are a “very numerous collective” and that, despite “requested from Social Security”, they lack “epigraph defined in the Tax Agency.” Its estimate is around 30,000 people nationwide.
It is not an attack on the minister, it is a call for attention to our situation. We shout for us to know that we exist
Juan Aguilar, member of the Professional Association and figuration actors
They also refer their definition in the still project of the artist, which has been one of the great demands of the cultural sector for years. It specifies that they are “audiovisual works workers who recreate with their presence an environment or a scene, without any specific weight or incidence in the action, which contribute to global authenticity and the atmosphere of said scene lacking any text. However, it will be lawful for the figures to help in the generation of noise, screams and murmurs of crowds and/or the songs and prayers in choir ”.
From APAF they ensure that this definition is “far from reality.” “We constantly perform tasks that require skills (for example, carry a tray) or knowledge (for example, driving),” they explain about actions that “are not collected” in which they describe as “outdated” definition. This is precisely one of the biggest problems they face, since “both selection agencies and producers” of the films and series in which they appear, “negotiate the value of those tasks.” This implies that their salary, which describe as “pecuniary”, remains “to the albur of each negotiation” or even, of the “generosity” of the project.
“Once again the negotiating table has been postponed in new rates,” criticizes his vowel, Juan Manuel Aguilar, who says that “every day” is governed under “a different one.” Similarly, he criticizes that, what is decided, “will never be retroactive,” and “will only say will only affect new projects”, with their consequent loss of capital. In addition, they point out that they are never invited to this negotiating table: “He has postponed without having our voice. Once again, our climb is delayed. ”
A outdated agreement
Having a new agreement – the current dates of 2016 – is one of the claims for which they have been fighting for some time. In it, among other deficiencies, the “nocturnal supplement” is not specified, which entails that they are not being paid and that “even, on many occasions”, they have to “fight” so that they “pay them the increase for having worked a holiday.”
In the statement, in which they say they do not want to “bore” the minister with his situation, they add “some sketches” about the “breach” of their agreement: “There are contractors who do not pay us payrolls until the middle of the following month, there are extensive days not included in the contract, sometimes we have non -existent rest areas, or we have to eat in the street, etc.”
From APAF they close the letter raising a question that could arise to Ernest Urtasun after reading his text: “And, if there are so many, why don’t they act?” “The answer is simple: because in our sector the fear of leaving the pot, to mean and, as it is said in our group, to be marked, to be made to you, not to be hired again, many times based on more visceral than professional criteria,” they replicate. Finally, they ask that, in the minister’s intention to address precariousness in the world of culture, he “agreed on the actors and actresses of figuration.” “We are all here, waiting for signals that improve our situation,” they conclude.
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