Icking: Organizer Ramadan calls for an extension of short-time work for culture

Created: 01/25/2022, 12:10 p.m

By: Franca Winkler

Demands the continuation of short-time work: organizer, artist and "BrotZeit & Spiele" managing director Wolfgang Ramadan.

© Monika Kager

Icking – Wolfgang Ramadan, managing director of “BrotZeit&Spiele”, has called for an extension of the short-time work allowance for the cultural sector.

Because this would otherwise expire in February.

The Ickinger culture organizer wrote to the district administrator and mayor.

Ramadan had joined the "Forum Event Management" initiative, which brings together six associations from the culture and event industry.

"Soon having arrived in the third year of the pandemic, this industry and thus also our companies have been hit hardest and have been continuously affected by the restrictions to combat the pandemic situation since March 2020," said Ramadan in the "fire letter" he wrote.

So far, it has only been possible to prevent an unprecedented wave of bankruptcies combined with massive job losses through extensive aid measures by the federal and state governments.

An important part of this is the instrument of short-time work.

"The end is imminent"

According to the current regulations, short-time work will expire at the end of February.

"By then, at the latest, the majority of companies are threatened with financial collapse," fears Ramadan.

If the existing rules for short-time work are not changed now, most cultural and event companies would have to pay the full wage costs themselves from March, although the current regulations do not give them the opportunity to generate relevant sales.

According to Ramadan, the companies would then be faced with the tough decision of countering the impending risk of insolvency by immediately dismissing their employees in January.

"For this reason, we would like to ask you, especially on behalf of our many employees and to preserve cultural diversity in our country, to support the events industry - in view of the pandemic situation, we urgently need a commitment to extend short-time work for our industry beyond February 2022, including the assumption of social security contributions,” Ramadan demands in his appeal.

Finally, the organizer states that District Administrator Josef Niedermaier and CSU member of parliament Martin Bachhuber have already reacted and have pledged their support.