The majority of artists who responded to a survey about working conditions in the Maltese arts sector said that being paid late for their work was the norm.

The survey was open for five days and attracted 222 responses, 92.8% of which came from artists.

The majority of respondents said they worked in theatre (34.8%), followed by dance (17.6%), music (16.3%) and visual arts (14.9%).

The survey was carried out by arts consultancy firm Culture Venture, after a campaign by the Irish Arts Council launching a new policy that safeguards working conditions for artists sparked a conversation about viable careers in the arts among local artists.

The subject of late payments is hotly debated in Malta and is an issue that comes up repeatedly with people who make a living in the arts.

The survey found that 83.7% of respondents said late payments were “the norm” while 54.5% of those with pending payments for work invoiced more than 30 days ago.

The majority (40.7%) are chasing payments of between €500 and €2,500 and a further 35.6% were waiting for payments between €100 and €500. A further 7.4% of respondents were still more than €5,000. 

Most respondents said they were owed money from public cultural organisations, followed by private companies and private individuals as top debtors.

The anecdotal portion of the research revealed that drafting contracts with those seeking to engage artistic work proved problematic and in cases where a contract is drafted, it still proves challenging for employers to abide by the terms of the agreement.

Those who responded said they were often made to feel they were being difficult for demanding that clients honor payment terms.

Arts ‘fuelled by people working at half-mast’

Florinda Camilleri (right), a dancer by trade, told Times of Malta that her refusal to accept unsatisfactory working conditions has caused her to fall back on her other career as a pharmacist.

“When you invest your time and energy into a project, when it’s done you need to get paid for it. Very often, because you aren’t paid a reasonable rate, you find yourself piecing projects together to keep your income coming in,” Camilleri said.

“The arts scene is fuelled by people operating at half-mast because we’re taking on projects just to make ends meet. The repercussion is that I’m not investing myself full-time in my artistic practice. You end up dispersing your energy and not moving towards your maximum potential.”

Camilleri said that red tape, particularly with public culture organisations, often disrupts from artists getting paid. Taking the structure into account she still questioned why it took multi-level institutions several months to process payment and not 30 days.

“We want to do work that has value to us and to society, not just to make money. But when you’re out of pocket to cover project costs and your wages haven’t been paid, it’s challenging to say the least.”

‘Hoping we do not catch them’

Performer Ruth Borg (left), who lives in Amsterdam, recently publicised a payment issue she encountered while working with Spazju Kreattiv.

Borg performed two shows for the theatre in November and in February and was not paid for her work in between. It resulted that Borg had misread her contract, and while the theatre reached out to resolve the issue, it left her questioning why payment was offered after the final performance when there was a three-month stretch between the two dates.

“With the public cultural organisation sector in general, I feel that those giving us contracts are hoping we ‘do not catch them’ and this creates a huge feeling of distrust. While artists need to be more educated as to what they can ask for contractually, it’s also important for us to feel like our employers have our interest in mind,” Borg told Times of Malta.

“The issue of timely payment, however, runs deeper than having good intentions. The system needs to change drastically as late payments have become normalised.”

Her few months waiting to get paid, she said, were nothing compared to some colleagues who disclosed chasing their money for months on end, sometimes upwards of a year. 

“We should be talking about this and proceeding legally if we are not paid on time, not keeping quiet because we fear the hand that feeds us,” Borg said.