Hundreds of stage workers are invisible like ghosts

Ebru ÇELİK

Concerts, theatre, festivals... Behind many stage performances there is the labour of hundreds of stage workers. The rodi who sets the stage, sound engineers, light technicians, costumers, equipment carriers... To prepare a stage for a performance, hundreds of stage workers continue to be exploited in unsafe and non-unionised conditions. It draws attention to the insufficient number of workers who are members of the unions active in the sector.

INVISIBLE LABOURER

Ahmet Can Batmaz, who has spent 15 years in the stage business and worked with Pilli Bebek, Yüksek Sadakat, Dolu Kadehi Ters Tut, Emre Aydın and currently Gripin, talked about the lack of security in the sector and the union problem. For 15 years, Batmaz has devoted himself exclusively to the stage. During these years, he has worked as a stage manager, festival stage manager, sound installer and drum technician, and he is currently working as a drum technician with Gripin.

At the end of 2000s, bands started to work with their own staff, and before that there was no such thing, Batmaz said, ‘At that time, the people who set up the stage and set up the lights were not permanent, whoever was in the company was doing it. However, with the increase in the number of festivals, each artist or band started to form their own staff. The pioneer of this was Zeytinli Rock Festival,’ he says.

NO SUPERVISION, LOTS OF PROBLEMS

Stating that workers in the sector are not insured, and that this situation deeply affects the day-to-day and retirement of workers, Batmaz said, ‘Lack of insurance also leads to tax evasion. That's how it works. The main cause of this problem is non-unionisation. However, there are also bands that take precautions against this.

Big names like Duman and Teoman pay salaries regularly and provide insurance, but this is quite rare. Tax evasion is not only specific to employers, but employees also benefit from this situation. Because income is generated but not taxed. At the end of the day, the company wins,’ he says.

Stating that there are many problems brought about by non-unionism and uninsured work, Batmaz said:

"Since stage labourers are uninsured, they have great difficulty when they lose their jobs. There is a further side to this. When stage workers reach the age of 60, they will have no income to live on. It is also very difficult for a stage worker to pay their own insurance contributions. Currently, when bands do not perform, we have no other income for months. This situation was clearly visible during the pandemic. Since they were not registered in the system, they could not benefit from the financial aid provided by the state. While the venues and "sound and light" companies provide insurance, those working with bands cannot benefit from this advantage. The state does not conduct much supervision on this matter. There is no union to protect the rights of the workers. If their bank accounts were analysed, unrecorded earnings could be found, but it is difficult to trace money in Turkey."

THE PROBLEM IS PRECARITY

Stating that many groups and organisations work in different ways, Batmaz added, "Some teams both rent their own equipment to others and get new jobs. However, they do not provide insurance for their employees. Despite the money they earn, they avoid insurance.

There is a situation that was very common in the sector for a while: Some people, who contact artists through their connections, take jobs and have these jobs done by young, inexperienced employees. For example, he gets paid 500 TL for a concert, but he has the work done by someone else for 200 TL. Thus, he makes money from the work he does not even show up for. This is still going on and is widespread in the sector. Their price policy is also a big problem.

Since there is no base price in the market, some bands perform for as low as 3 thousand liras. This situation causes other groups to reduce their wages. This imbalance is a general issue in the sector," he says, adding that bands like Dolu Kadehi Ters Tut sometimes take the stage just to earn money for their technical team, and even some concerts leave nothing for the artists’ pockets. Although there are such approaches, he also emphasises that inequality and lack of security is a huge problem in the sector.

THEY HAVE NO HOPE

Fatih Özakoğlu, President of the Music and Stage Workers' Union (MÜZİK-SEN), summarised the lack of unions in the sector and the reasons why the awareness of unionisation could not be established as follows: “Stage workers have no hope and belief due to the system we are in”.

Özakoğlu said, ‘For this reason, they do not want to become a member of the union. They know their problems, they complain about them, but when we say ‘come and become a member of our union. Let's fight together' they do not respond to our call. Class consciousness is low, stage labourers are not aware that they are workers.

I have been in the sector for 30 years and I have 2 years of insurance. We have no pension, we cannot get health care. We have begun our preparations for this and we want a retroactive loan law to be introduced. At least those who can can pay their own contributions this way. We invite our artists and stage workers to become unionised and become members of our union. I am sure that we will get our rights with a united struggle to the fullest.’

Özakoğlu underlined that the Musicians' Union (MU) has 31 thousand members in the UK, a country with a population of 68 million, but there are not even 10 thousand union members in Turkey, a country with a population of 86 million, and said, ’In the UK, unions can enforce a floor pay. Both stage workers and musicians do their jobs by getting what they deserve. In our country, stage labourers say, ‘we are hungry, we cannot make a living’. Workers are in this situation because there is no supervision mechanism in this country.’

THE UNION IS THE SOLUTION

Burhan Şeşen, musician and executive member of the Professional Union of Music Performers, summarises the lack of unionisation saying: ‘We have very few unions in the music industry that stage workers can join. Since the union is affiliated to the Ministry of Culture, they do not have much leverage. In other words, everyone in the sector is under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture. It is the trade unions that can solve these problems of insecure labour, working hours and wages. However, there are no unions in the sector, and we cannot say that the ones that exist are doing their job properly.

Everyone witnessed conditions in the music industry during the pandemic period. A few of my fellow stage workers took steps to establish a union on behalf of stage workers at that time, but they were also unable to do so. Because unfortunately, it is not easy. Being able to do that job, renting and paying the rent, employing staff... Unfortunately, it is a tough situation.

The people who are currently engaged in music unionism are people who are not in the sector and who don't seem to understand it. This is the biggest handicap. But again, as we said, one of the big problems in the sector is non-unionism. Everyone working in this sector should be a member of a union.’

Note: This article is translated from the original Turkish version titled Yüzlerce sahne işçisi hayalet gibi, published in BirGün newspaper on March 18, 2025.