Reader’s opinion|Prioritizing work and not doing it is already commonplace.
Museum- and the cultural heritage industry has been watching the government’s cut policy with concern. The industry has already lived to the brim – the salaries of highly educated professionals are lagging behind, and real estate costs are rising all the time. Some museums have already had to extort what they can, i.e. laid off their entire staff, so that the rent has been paid.
Cutting staff creates new challenges: an uncertain future tempts people to change fields, and the workload of those who remain becomes unsustainable. The answers to the ongoing survey of the labor protection network in the museum sector show the industry’s strict work pace: almost 70 percent of the respondents state that the working time is quite poorly or poorly enough to handle their own tasks. The amount of work causes quite a lot or a lot of load for up to 80 percent of the respondents. Prioritizing work and not doing it is already commonplace.
“
Museum expenditures from state expenditures are in the order of just under one per mille.
Surgery as a result, layoffs have to be made, and reduced resources directly affect coworkers, but also customers. Requested statements and statutory authority duties are backlogged. The opening hours of the museums have to be reduced and self-financing suffers when the museums are closed. In addition to ticket revenue, revenue from museum shop sales, guided tours, and meeting and event services will be lost. And no new exhibitions are born without personnel. The cuts cause a downward spiral.
Museum expenditures from state expenditures are in the order of just under one per mille. However, the cuts have huge negative effects on the industry, both for staff and customers. When cutting, we forget the welfare effects of the industry and the importance of our own cultural heritage and taking care of it for us Finns. Not destroying our own cultural heritage by short-sighted cutting!
Katariina Mäkelä
executive director
Riina Linna
chairman
Museum and cultural heritage trade union
The reader’s opinions are speeches written by HS readers, which are selected and delivered by the HS editors. You can leave an opinion piece or familiarize yourself with the principles of writing at the address www.hs.fi/kiryotamielipidekeisuis/.
#Readers #Opinion #Government #cuts #crippling #cultural #heritage #sector
