Background information

In June 2020 the State Culture Capital Foundation developed Creative workers’ employment program. The aim of the program is to finance the creative work of self-employed creative workers in the cultural sector, whose professional creative activity has been restricted due to the state of emergency, and to promote further creative growth and genre diversity of artistic and cultural values.

The budget in the amount of €1,936,000 for the program is allocated from the Ministry of Culture. The State Culture Capital Foundation has chosen a project competition as a method for determining eligibility.

Content of measure

In the program, a one-time grant in the amount of €1,614 is granted to a creative worker before the payment of taxes for the performance of creative work during the period from 1 July 2020 to 30 September 2020.

There are several eligibility criteria to enter the call for proposals:

• The professional activity of the creative worker had to be limited due to the state of emergency declared in the country (13 March 2020 to 31 May 2020);
• The average monthly income from economic activities, except for the income from copyright and related rights collective management organizations, during the state of emergency had not exceeded €538 per month;
• The person was not in employment;
• The person was in employment, but the salary was less than €430;
• The person is not in pension age.

Eligible people had to submit the creative work plan for the period from 1 July 2020 to 30 September 2020, a summary of their creative activity for the last three-year period, and an explanation of how the professional creative activity has been restricted due to the state of emergency declared in the state.

Use of measure

In total 648 creative people have received a grant. Total amount of budget spent was €1,040,492. In the beginning of the program the activity of the creative persons was low. The Association of Self-employed Musicians pointed out that due to the eligibility criteria set in the program, the expected support could not be obtained by the majority of creative people who need it. As the result the criteria were changed – in the context of this program income earned during an emergency situation do not include income from collective management organisations of copyright and related rights and idle time allowances.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Self-employed Particular professions	Does not apply to businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	No involvement	No involvement
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• No involvement
• Main level of involvement: N/A

Involvement

Social partners participate in discussions on measures for the prevention and suppression the spread of COVID-19 and on crisis impact on economy. However specific opinions of social partners for this particular measure are not published.

Views and reactions

The Association of Self-Employed Musicians points out that due to the criteria set in the program regulations, most of the creative people who need it could not get the expected support. The association has evaluated the results of the survey of representatives of the cultural and creative industries sector carried out by the Latvian Academy of Culture in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, Latvian Creative Unions Council and Association of Contemporary Culture NGOs, number of applications submitted to the program, members of the Self-Employed Musicians Association and other creative people and therefore asked for changes to the regulations and an extension of the application deadline. As the result the rules of program was updated.

Sectors and occupations

Sources

• 07 July 2020: Association of Self-Employed Musicians: The criteria of the Creative Persons Employment Program have made it ineffective (www.lsm.lv)
• 14 July 2020: Expands the range of applicants for support from the SCCF Creative Persons Employment Program (www.lsm.lv)
• 27 October 2020: Creative persons employment program (www.kkf.lv)