Court ruling: Opera paid singers below minumum wage

The Icelandic soprano Þóra Einarsdóttir has won a significant legal case against her national opera.

Here’s a summary:
In its verdict, delivered on 27 May 2022, the Landsréttur Appeal Court confirmed that the Icelandic Opera had violated a wage contract it made with the FÍH (The Icelandic Musicians’ Union) and FÍL (Association of Icelandic actors and performing artists) unions in 2000 by paying singers lower payments than the minimum stipulated in the wage contract during the rehearsal period, disregarding the occupational safety and health provisions of the agreement, refusing to pay overtime according to the wage contract and refusing to pay wage-related expenses. Supreme Court barrister Gunnar Ingi Jóhannsson represented Þóra in the Landsréttur Appeal Court.

The background to this case is that during rehearsals for the staging of The Marriage of Figaro in 2019, the Icelandic Opera began summoning the soloists of the show to rehearsals far beyond the occupational safety provisions in their union’s wage contract with IO. The workload from rehearsals became so great that singers were worried about their voice health as well as their health in general. Concerns about this issue were repeatedly expressed to the opera director. Nevertheless, the rehearsal summons and workload were not reduced. The singers requested that their union calculate overtime pay for work performed. The opera director, however, refused to pay for overtime and claimed that the FÍH union’s agreement with the opera was not applicable.

Þóra Einarsdóttir then instigated proceedings at the District Court, where she sued the Icelandic Opera for breach of a wage contract. The basis for her case was that payments to her during the rehearsal period had been too low, and that the Opera had an obligation to pay overtime and wage-related expenses as specified in the wage contract. The District Court, however, held that the contract was a free project agreement and that the parties had been free to negotiate below the minimum criteria of the wage contract. The Icelandic Opera subsequently issued a press release stating that it was legal to pay singers lower payments than under the terms of the wage contract….