FERA joins Stockholm workshop on the gender pay gap in the European audiovisual industry

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FERA CEO Pauline Durand-Vialle took part in a capacity-building session on reducing the gender pay gap in the European audiovisual sector, which took place at Filmhuset in Stockholm, Sweden, on 9 & 10 November 2023.

Co-hosted by UNI Europa & EWA Network as part of a 2-year project co-funded by the European Union, the event followed over a year of work from the steering committee on the gender pay gap, and a consultation organised in Brussels, Belgium, in December 2022 to collect existing information (data, studies, policy frameworks, references in collective agreements, etc.).

FERA then contributed by sharing the results of the 2019 landmark study on the remuneration of audiovisual authors in Europe commissioned by FERA and FSE, as its data shows a clear gender remuneration gap between Screenwriters and Screen Directors, which negatively impacts female professional audiovisual authors’ ability to build sustainable careers.

The November 2023 Stockholm session looked at practical strategies for reducing the gender pay gap in Europe’s audiovisual industry, and discussed further data collection to document and monitor the issue, developing tools for professionals in the sector, as well as the relevance for the European audiovisual sector of EU Directive (EU) 2023/970 on strengthening the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms.

Adopted in May 2023, this EU Pay Transparency Directive sets out minimum rules to assert the principle of equal pay for equal work between men and women, ban pay discrimination on grounds of sex and stronger enforcement of the right to equal pay through pay transparency. For more details, see the Directive’s official summary. Member States are due to transpose this Directive’s provisions into national law by 7 June 2026.

The impact of the Directive in the European audiovisual sector is yet to be determined, as many audiovisual employers fall below the 100-employee threshold for reporting obligations, and a very large share of sector professionals are self-employed and do not have employee status. Yet the transposition of this Directive could present an opportunity to raise the gender pay gap issue in the audiovisual sector at national level and address it with concrete measures based on the principles laid out in the Directive.

Interactive, peer-informed and peer-led, the Stockholm session featured as participants representatives of CIMA (Asociación de Mujeres Cineastas), CNC (Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée), EFAD (European Film Agency Directors Association), Fackförbundet Scen & Film, FERA (Federation of European Screen Directors), FIA (International Federation of Actors), FNV Cultuur, Mediarte, Prakticum, Raising Films Ireland, SAA (Society of Audiovisual Authors), Screen Guilds of Ireland, Screen Producers Ireland, Unionen, and Vrouwen in Beeld (Women in the Picture).

Follow-up sessions to further discuss collaborations and best practices are planned in 2024.