First collective wage agreement for guest artists on German stages

Press release
Berlin/Hamburg/Cologne, March 07, 2025

GDBA, VdO and BFFS conclude a collective agreement with the German Stage Association for dependent guests for the first time.

Almost 18 months after the start of collective bargaining for touring artists, the artists' unions BFFS, GDBA and VdO have succeeded in concluding a collective agreement for touring artists with the German Stage Association.

After the German Stage Association initially broke off negotiations in June 2024, negotiations were resumed and successfully concluded in January of this year following a request from the trade unions.

The collective agreement that has now been reached contains important provisions for the urgently needed social protection of guest artists.

In particular, this concerns regulations on cancellation fees if agreed performances and rehearsals are canceled by the employing stage, as well as regulations on continued remuneration in the event of illness, the granting of vacation and its compensation. The collective agreement for guest artists will enter into force on June 1, 2025.

"We are delighted to have reached this urgently needed wage agreement for our guest colleagues, as they provide enormously important support for the permanent ensembles. Without them, stage operations would not be possible. It is therefore all the more important that we have now been able to secure collective bargaining protection for these colleagues, who require increased social protection due to their constantly changing engagements and the fixed-term nature of their employment contracts," says Heinrich Schafmeister, BFFS collective bargaining representative.

"The working conditions of freelance artists have been a major issue for many decades. We are overjoyed to finally be able to create a new perspective for some of them," says Lisa Jopt, Executive President of the GDBA.

"In the efforts of the artists' unions to achieve an improvement in working conditions, especially for the particularly vulnerable area of guest employees, this is a remarkable step that ensures legal certainty and reliability by creating essential basic conditions for social security. The task now is to further expand this protection and create comparable minimum standards for self-employed artists," commented VdO Managing Director Gerrit Wedel on the collective agreement reached.