Almost a year ago, on February 10, the Belgrade Philharmonic started its concert on Fridays in the hall of the Kolarc Endowment as never before: the orchestra addressed the audience with the intention of pointing out the conditions in which they live and work.
They said that the "Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra has been in VD status for two years (now three), that it celebrates its centenary with the lowest salaries of orchestral musicians in the region, with a shamefully small budget year after year, without advertising, without renewed concert uniforms for ten years and without firm convictions that our new hall will be built."
Out of everything, until today they only received concert uniforms and it was formed in to the government of Ana Brnabić working group which was supposed to solve all that. But it didn't.
A year of ignoring
That is why, two days ago, the Belgrade Philharmonic and the orchestras of the National Theater in Belgrade and the Serbian National Theater in Novi Sad, in a joint statement to the public, repeated the problems they pointed out a year ago.
"After a year of being ignored and manipulated, our discontent has reached its peak. We announce the use of all legal means in the fight for the dignity and rights of cultural workers. This fight is not only ours - it is a fight for a society that respects its values and creates foundations for future generations. We invite all employees in the cultural sector, artists and citizens to raise their voices against the degradation of culture. "Culture must not be marginalized", they say, calling for the responsibility of all actors who did not work in the interests of the employees", the announcement of these three orchestras reads.
Because "our rights are neglected, our requests are ignored, and the imposed solutions further worsen our position", they say and call for the responsibility of all actors who did not work in the interests of the employees.
There was no salary increase
Jelena Dimitrijević, violinist of the Belgrade Philharmonic and member of the Board of Directors of the BF, tells the "Vremena" portal that "the proposal of the working group at the Ministry of Culture to increase the base of 13% for employees in culture was not adopted by the Ministry of Finance, so the increase did not happen."
He says they don't know. What did the working group do?, because "no one contacted the Philharmonic. We were able to read the reports from the two held sessions on the website of the Ministry, but after that those reports were also missing".
"In December, a new regulation on coefficients was adopted. The new regulation is confusing, the operators are humiliated by it, they do not stand in the right/valued place of the regulation. The focus was on employees below the minimum wage, to raise their wages. As business operators, we still mostly remain below the average salary in Serbia," says Jelena Dimitrijević and asks:
"Who negotiated on our behalf?" Apart from the president of the Independent Culture Union of Serbia, Dragana Đorđević, we don't know anyone else. We were certainly not consulted, and the decree itself says that it was not about the interests of the artists and that the president did not negotiate in such a way as to solve the problems of the business owner. We remained below the national average, without a raised base, but above all without basic communication and the will to find the best solution to the identified problems."
Culture has been sacrificed.
Then: "We were not approved for the competition for director, that is. we did not receive an answer to our letters and requests. Therefore, except for the donation of the concert wardrobe, our requests remained unfulfilled."
Jelena Dimitrijević believes that culture has been sacrificed and that it is not among the government's priorities.
"Culture has always been, and remains, the first to be proud of when it suits them, but also the first to sacrifice." The problem is in the understanding of culture, because it is not only for praise and painting. It must be invested systematically and strategically, which means that we should deal with it. They take us lightly. Maybe it's down to our inertness, always focused on the common good and constant work on ourselves."
What reactions do they expect regarding the latest announcement? "We can no longer predict reactions. We know what our problems are and we will fight for them in accordance with the will that may or may not be shown," concludes Jelena Dimitrijević.
Requirements
As stated in the announcement, the Belgrade Philharmonic and the orchestras of the National Theater in Belgrade and the Serbian National Theater in Novi Sad urgently request the following:
"Adoption of the proposal to increase the price of labor by the promised 13%, withdrawal of the disputed Regulation and joint work on the revision, which includes the separation of operators from other services and their adequate evaluation through coefficients, as prescribed by the law on culture, the adoption of a budget for culture of at least 1 %, following the recommendation of UNESCO and trends in the region, resolving the status of CEOs in management positions and establishing public supervision over cultural institutions".
