On 12 March 2018, the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Ingrid van Engelshoven, presented the Cultural Policy for 2018 to 2021. Two positive points stand out: after years of austerity, the government will start making investments in culture again and secondly, reasonable remuneration for workers in the sector is explicitly mentioned.

As the minister stated in her letter to the House of Representatives: ‘The cultural sector works on good employment practices, good commissioning and good entrepreneurship. This includes reasonable remuneration. In 2018, the government will support further development of the labour market agenda.’

The labour market agenda (https://www NULL.kunsten92 NULL.nl/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Arbeidsmarktagenda-culturele-en-creatieve-sector-2017-2023 NULL.pdf) was developed at the request of the Minister by Kunsten ‘92, the suprasectoral interest group for art, culture and heritage of which the Dutch Authors’ Association is a member. The labour market agenda, presented in November 2017, was created to identifiy and tackle bottlenecks in the cultural sector of the labour market in both the short and long term. One of the items on this agenda is the development of a code of fair practice, a normative framework agreed on by a broad representation of cultural and creative professionals for sustainable, honest and transparent entrepreneurship and work in art, culture and creative industries. Reasonable remuneration for workers in the sector is part of the code. Fair practice campaigners (https://dutchculture NULL.nl/en/news/fair-practice-arts) are also active in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Sweden and Italy.

Although it is not clear how the Cultural Policy 2018 – 2021 will work out for literary translators, the plans are to be cautiously welcomed.