French President, Emmanuel Macron, is hoping to extend unemployment insurance for artists and technicians in the cultural industry in France up to August 21, 2020.
France’s cultural industry has been badly hit by coronavirus.
But the President spent about 30 minutes this afternoon, outlining plans for the sector.
In the proposal, for local artists and technicians who work on a periodic basis, Mr Macron says he hopes to extend their unemployment insurance benefits through August 2021.
The unemployment insurance described as the “intermittents du spectacle” status applies to about 100,000 workers yearly.
It is based on whether the workers meet the necessary threshold of time worked.
However, for 2020, the President observed that “many of them will not be able to complete their required hours.”
The COVID-19 lockdown has stopped TV and film shoots around the country and shut theater productions.
Mr Macron in the meantime asked the workers to come to schools to help organize extracurricular activities which will be paid for by the state.
According to him,
he would love to see the creation of a temporary indemnity fund for TV and film projects that were forced to shut down over the past two months, pointing out that it will be very difficult for production to concretely resume before the end of May.
On May 11, France will begin the easing of lockdown.
