Croatia: New forms of solidarity of the Trade Union of Croatian Journalists

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) welcomed the Trade Union of Croatian Journalist (TUCJ)’s initiative to restart negotiations on a branch collective agreement in the media. “A journalist who is not afraid of losing his job can be a truly free journalist,” quotes a press release from the TUCJ. The TUCJ is working on the creation of public media policies to improve social dialogue, media regulation and implement stronger collective agreements, the main goal of the union. It aims to bring together all trade unions in the media sector and has gathered a team of representatives of the Trade Union of Croatian Journalists (SNH), the Trade Union of…

Irish government must restore freelance rights for collective barganing

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), joining its affiliate in Ireland the National Union of Journalists, is welcoming the decision of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to challenge Ireland’s failure to treat freelance workers in accordance with the rights enshrined in the organisation’s convention. Following a complaint by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) the Irish government faces questions at the ILO assembly in Geneva about the treatment of freelance workers, who are denied the right to be collectively represented by unions as a result of the actions of the former Competition Authority in Ireland. The complaint was lodged…

Trends and skills in the European audiovisual and live performance sectors

The final conference of Creative Skills Europe, the European Skills Council on Employment and Training in the Audiovisual and Live Performance sectors, will take place in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday 6th of June 2016. Closing a phase of activities that included three meetings in Tallinn (April 2015), Prague (January 2016), and Madrid (March 2016) the conference will present the final publication of the project, as well as recommendations for future actions and co-operations in the field of skills development for the audiovisual and live performance sectors in Europe. More than 50 participants from across Europe are expected to this event.…

European journalists seek ways to enforce fair contracts for quality journalism

In the framework of the two-years project “Rights and Jobs in Journalism”, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) organised on 30 May its last workshop focusing on “Authors’ rights enforcement: Fair contracts for quality journalism” in Brussels. Twenty EFJ members coming from 16 European countries attended the workshop and exchanged best practices on the protection of authors’ rights and way to ensure fair contracts for journalists.  Participants had the opportunity to discuss practical tools in two working groups. The first one, focused on the question of how to secure fair contracts for European journalists, raising the problem of what a fair remuneration might be. In the Netherlands…

LAREG+ to monitor journalists labour conditions in Europe

Despite the travel difficulties to Brussels following the attacks of 22 March 2016, members of the Labour Rights Expert Group (LAREG) of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) continued their meeting in Brussels to discuss the evolution of labour conditions for journalists and media workers in Europe. Thanks to a new EFJ project entitled Building Trust in media in South East Europe and Turkey financially supported by UNESCO and the EU, the LAREG meeting provided a unique opportunity to exchange views between EU and non-EU participants from South Eastern Europe of the EFJ members and discuss recent developments in the media sector…

fair contracts

EFJ workshop: Fair contracts for quality journalism, 30 May Brussels

In the framework of the project “Rights and Jobs in Journalism”, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) will organise a one-day workshop on Authors’ rights enforcement: Fair Contracts for Quality Journalism on 30 May in Brussels, Belgium. The workshop is funded by the European Commission (DG Employment). It will be linked to the European creators’ conference on 31 May, also held in Brussels at the same venue. Website of the Creators Conference can be found HERE. Agenda 30 May, EFJ seminar The workshop will discuss and offer practice tools and exchanges on the following themes: EU main trends and challenges…

Improving social rights for atypical workers in culture and media sector

On 26-27 January, FIA (Actors’ Unions), FIM (musicians), UNI-Europa (media, entertainment & art) and the EFJ organised a workshop in Ljubljana and discussed how to better protect those categories of workers who do not enjoy any social and legal  protection. MEP Tanja Fajon gave a video key note speech reminding participants that all EU Member States are committed to provide social security for all workers, and that we all have to defend the European social model. She referred to the EP report on social protection for all including self-employed workers. The report asks the European Commission and Member States to…

Project Management for Trade Union Representatives

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) together with the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) will organise a four-day workshop on “Project Management for Trade Union Representatives” from 23 to 26 February 2016 in Zagreb, Croatia. The workshop is hosted by the EFJ member, the Croatia Journalists’ Association. The workshop targets at project officers or managers at your union and association who implement projects funded by the EU with the overall aim to improve their skills and capacities in project managements and developing projects for the future to carry out their programmes. Aims : – To provide an introduction to projects…

Collective bargaining for all, Ljubljana, 17 – 18 March

In the framework of the two-year project “Rights and Jobs in Journalism”, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) together with its affiliate, the Slovene Association of Journalists, will organise a workshop “Collective bargaining and freelancers : collective bargaining for all” in Ljubljana, 17-18 March. This upcoming workshop will focus on the need to better protect freelance journalists through collective agreements. while the need of cooperation between freelances and employed journalists continues to grow, best practice from affiliates about common campaigns/activities between staff and freelances shall be show-cased. REGISTRATION Please submit your registration form online before 29 January 2016. Your participation will be confirmed by the…

Highlights of EFJ Freelance Expert Group (FREG) meeting

On 19 November, the EFJ organised its biannual Freelance Experts’ Group (FREG) meeting, in which participants from 8 European countries discussed EFJ activities, national developments regarding freelance activities and ideas for the  future working programme to be adopted by next year’s EFJ General Meeting. Below is a snap shot of the main topics debated by the participants. EFJ issues & activities Results of the survey “Mapping Freelance Journalists” : Please click HERE for more information. The Rights and Jobs in Journalism EFJ project debriefing : The Dublin Freelance conference on atypical workers, which was organised in September 2015 by the National union of…