The Urgent Return to Trainee Artist Recruitment Instead of 4/B Must Be Made Immediately!

TRAINEE-ARTIST RECRUITMENT MUST URGENTLY REPLACE 4/B!

Our qualified young artists — some holding doctorates, some trained abroad — are being employed not through the trainee-artist recruitment expressly provided for in the art institutions' own laws, but through 4/B contracted-artist recruitment, which has no examination regulations, was originally intended for temporary needs, and has over time been turned into a "back door" into the institutions.

As a result of this practice, artists are condemned to work for an average salary of 35,000 TL. This is plainly exploitation of labour.

Had these artists been recruited through trainee-artist examinations — in accordance with the institutions' own laws, with juries, examination procedures and criteria defined by legislation — they would have been employed at a salary of roughly 53,000 TL and, at the end of one year, would have been able to take the confirmation examination and become permanent staff artists.

Under today's 4/B practice, artists are made to work for 3 years at 35,000 TL, with the possibility of permanent status arising only if a legislative arrangement is made.

We ask: how does 3 years at 35,000 TL compare with 1 year at 53,000 TL? Is this progress? Is this valuing the young artist? To those who defend and applaud this exploitation of labour, we say plainly: this is not progress; it is lowering standards, weakening the institutional structure and impoverishing the art worker!

Our union has repeatedly warned the authorities and the public about the controversial and litigated examinations opened to date. At the point we have reached, both the institutions and the artists who passed those examinations are being victimised by these flawed practices.

The solution is clear and brooks no delay: there must be an urgent return to "trainee artist" recruitment, in accordance with the art institutions' own laws.

Culture Workers' Union