Paying an intermittent entertainment worker: annexes 8 and 10, cachet and GUSO

The payroll of an intermittent entertainment worker rests on a fixed-term usage contract attached to annexe 8 (technicians) or annexe 10 (artists). The artist is paid by the cachet, converted into 12 hours for entitlement counting, the technician in actual hours. The 507 hours over 12 months open unemployment benefit.

Intermittence is not a status, it is an employment mechanism. Each assignment gives rise to a fixed-term usage contract (CDDU), a short contract by nature, justified by the sector's constant practice of not using permanent contracts for these jobs.

Two annexes to the unemployment insurance rules govern compensation:

• Annexe 8: workers and technicians of film and audiovisual production (production management, image, sound, editing, set design, and so on).
• Annexe 10: performing artists (actors, musicians, dancers, singers).

Attaching the worker to the correct annexe is not cosmetic: it determines how hours are counted, hence the opening of rights. In production files, the most frequent error we see is the wrong routing of a hybrid role (a musician who handles sound, a technician who also performs), with a risk to the employee's eligibility.

The artist's unit of pay is the cachet (annexe 10). The artist is not paid by the hour but by the performance: a show, a recording session, a day of shooting.

For unemployment benefit counting, one cachet is conventionally converted into 12 hours. This conversion is central: it turns a flat-rate payment into countable hours toward the eligibility threshold.

Technicians (annexe 8) escape this logic: they are counted in actual hours worked. The same shoot can therefore generate a very different number of hours depending on whether we are talking about an artist or a technician.

The structuring benchmark of the whole scheme is the threshold of 507 hours worked over the 12 months preceding the end of the contract retained. Below it, no opening of rights to the specific unemployment allowance.

This is what makes each cachet and each technician hour valuable: payroll is not only a net-pay calculation, it is also an act that feeds (or not) the employee's hour counter. A poorly filled declaration, a forgotten or wrongly converted cachet, and eligibility is at stake. Our reading: here, declarative rigour matters as much as the accuracy of the payslip.

The GUSO (single window for occasional live performance) is for the employer who is not a professional live performance promoter: a company outside the sector, a local authority, an association, an individual who occasionally organises a live show.

Its key points:

• Mandatory for the occasional employer concerned, who goes through it rather than running standalone payroll.
• A single declaration covers several bodies: URSSAF, France Travail, Audiens, Afdas, Congés Spectacles, Thalie Santé. Payment is made within 15 days.
• Limit of 6 performances per year: beyond that, the organiser must obtain a live performance promoter licence and leaves the GUSO scheme.

The underestimated risk: a structure that multiplies events believes it stays within the simple GUSO framework and crosses the 6-performance limit without noticing. It then shifts into the licence obligation and into standard payroll (DSN), without being prepared for it.

Two bodies specific to the sector are added to the classic contribution base:

• Audiens manages supplementary pension and provident cover for the cultural sector.
• The Congés Spectacles fund pools paid leave. The logic: the intermittent worker chains many short employers, none of which could manage the leave alone. The call rate is 15.5% of gross salary for the period from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026.

• Identify the applicable annexe (8 technician, 10 artist) based on the actual role.
• Choose the consistent unit of pay: cachet for the artist, hours for the technician.
• Check the employer's status: live performance promoter (DSN) or occasional (GUSO).
• Watch the limit of 6 performances per year if you use the GUSO.
• Declare each cachet correctly, including the conversion into 12 hours.
• Provision and declare the Audiens and Congés Spectacles contributions (15.5% of gross for the 2025-2026 period).

An audiovisual production company hires, for a three-day shoot, a director of photography (annexe 8) and two actors (annexe 10). As a live performance promoter, it runs full payroll in DSN. The director of photography is counted in actual hours, the actors in cachets converted to 12 hours each. Conversely, an association organising a single concert would go through the GUSO, with a single declaration covering all the bodies.

Paying an intermittent worker crosses labour law, specific unemployment insurance and sector funds: it is a field where a setup error is costly for both employee and employer. If you produce shows or audiovisual content, our dedicated support for audiovisual production secures your contracts, your intermittent payroll and your social declarations.