The Malta and Entertainment Industry and Arts Association is urging the government to extend the COVID-19 wage supplement to the arts industry or risk throwing the industry back to its fledgling days.
MEIA president Howard Keith Debono told Times of Malta that with 85% of events cancelled till the end of the year on top of COVID-19 restrictions, the industry was looking at only a fraction of the business it had done compared to last year, with a projected €11 million in lost revenue for 227 full time and 450 part-time employees.
“The majority of industries seem to be looking at a 40% business scenario compared to previous years and there are several in our industry who haven’t had any work since last March,” Debono said.
“One needs to understand how our industry operates to appreciate that stopping plans on a project, rehearsals and scheduled programming means that we forecast a year of complete inactivity.”
With loans to pay and families to feed, people who made a living in the industry needed assurances to ensure their survival without having to abandon their careers and businesses entirely.
“We are looking at this holistically and the government needs to act immediately to avoid a setback of about three to five years. People in the entertainment and arts, like everyone else, depend on this for their livelihood,” Debono said.
“Until a few weeks ago we were calling for a recovery plan. Now we need to add survival to it. In the immediate term we need to secure the livelihood of the hundreds of people who work in this sector.”
“For this reason the full covid wage supplement is needed together with cancellation subsidies for costs that cannot be recouped.
“For longer-term investments we need to reboot the industry with seed funding for commercial projects to inject new life in the coming years. We also need to ensure that our temporary and permanent venues are fit to reopen safely.”
A survey of MEIA members found that 26% were likely to quit the sector if things did not improve by December, while 46% said they would have to give up their careers if it did not improve by June of next year.