After a year of waiting for their working conditions to be increased, and above all for their wages to be at the minimum level and to get a director, the members of the Belgrade Philharmonic went on strike. They say it will last until the request is met
This Friday, the Belgrade Philharmonic will not hold a concert, as it has been doing for years, because it is on strike as of today, March 3.
They will be on strike until further notice, until the request is fulfilled.
Two requests
They have two demands: urgent improvement of the financial position of employees from the current regulation on coefficients, as well as an urgent opening of the competition for the director of the Belgrade Philharmonic in a transparent manner and in accordance with the competition protocol.
As part of the first request, they ask for the improvement of the financial position of the employees to be carried out through the return of the special Regulation on coefficients for the Belgrade Philharmonic, because the Belgrade Philharmonic is the only philharmonic orchestra on the budget of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia that is exclusively an orchestral ensemble.
Also, "for those who represent the most numerous group in the Belgrade Philharmonic orchestra (tuti musicians, i.e. orchestra musicians) we demand a salary at least in the amount of the national average, which is, according to the latest data of the Institute of Statistics from November 2024 publicly available on the website, 100.738 net. Also, we demand the unification of all tuti musicians into one group by harmonizing the Catalog of Jobs with the Regulation on Coefficients".
The second request is clear - the Belgrade Philharmonic has been in acting status for three years.
A strike could have been foreseen.
It could be expected that the Belgrade Philharmonic will take the last step left in the fight for their rights, i.e. a strike, after not a single demand from their statement from mid-January was fulfilled.
"After a year of being ignored and manipulated, our discontent has reached its peak. We announce the use of all legal means in the fight for the dignity and rights of cultural workers. This fight is not only ours - it is a fight for a society that respects its values and creates foundations for future generations. We invite all employees in the cultural sector, artists and citizens to raise their voices against the degradation of culture. "Culture must not be marginalized," said the announcement, which, in addition to the Philharmonic, was signed by National Theatre orchestras in Belgrade and the Serbian National Theater in Novi Sad.
10. February 2024.
The one-year ignoring of the Philharmonic's problems began on February 10, 2024, when the musicians started their regular concert on Fridays in the hall of the Kolarc Endowment as never before: the orchestra addressed the audience with the intention of pointing out the conditions in which they live and work.
They said that the "Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra has been in VD status for two years (now three), that it celebrates its centenary with the lowest salaries of orchestral musicians in the region, with a shamefully small budget year after year, without advertising, without renewed concert uniforms for ten years and without firm convictions that our new hall will be built."
Out of everything, until today they only received concert uniforms, and it was formed and the working group in Ana Brnabić's government, which was supposed to solve all that, But it's not.
And, that's why, based on Article 3, Paragraph 1 of the Law on Strike and Article 57 of the Special Collective Agreement for Cultural Institutions founded by the Republic, Autonomous Province and Local Self-Government Unit, the majority of the employees of the Belgrade Philharmonic decided to go on strike.
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