Intermittents du Spectacle

   People working intermittently in the media and culture sector, including part-time actors, stage hands and technicians. At the start of the twenty-first century, les Intermittents du Spectaclebenefited from extremely attractive conditions for obtaining unemployment benefit - far less stringent that conditions applied to other types of worker. Judging that the system was being abused and exploited both by many workers themselves and by the media and production companies employing them, the government decided in 2003 to tighten the conditions of entitlement to unemployment benefit. This led to massive strikes and protest actions by the Intermittents, and even to the cancellation of the 2003 Avignon theatre festival. The rules were eventually tightened up in 2006, though Intermittents still benefit from an easier entitlement to benefits than most other employees.