BULLYING AND HARASSMENT IN TV
ANALYSIS
the industry wants to do something and is prepared to put its money where its mouth is or it isn’t. And if it isn’t then they are going to have to face the prospect of an external body.” A total of 40 screen bodies have backed the
BFI and BAFTA Principles and Guidance and the subsequent Action List. But turning the advice into action on the ground at a production company level is less clear and there is no consistent, tracked adoption. Fable TV requires workers to sign up to the Principles, while the BFI has tied its funding of productions to the protocols. Several talent agents, including Sarah Putt, have embedded the guidelines into contracts. Larger companies where there is an HR function,
are sometimes more aware and better resourced. At Banijay, kick-off meetings on productions include setting behaviour expectations and giving the crew helpline numbers. “But clearly we need to do more,” says Lucinda Hicks, ceo of Banijay UK. “We know that people often don’t feel empowered to report or call out behaviour, and from talking to our own teams this is for a myriad of reasons.” Banijay UK is surveying the whole company, as well as freelancers, “to understand experiences and barriers to coming forward so we can tackle them head on.” Monkey Kingdom, part of NBCUniversal, requires
launched last year, has resulted in anonymous stories of bullying being posted on its website: members of production teams being made to feel useless, unsupported, sometimes suicidal. One member of crew on a factual production reported harassment on behalf of co-workers, but says that this and one other incident were brushed under the carpet: “These were powerful people who couldn’t be challenged and were allowed to behave as they liked.” Following the Looking
people to cross to invest their wellbeing and energy into pursuing something when perhaps they’ve only got a couple of weeks left on that project.” Equally, she fears that where an employer does have a good reporting system, there’s no system to follow a perpetrator when they move on. “We were taken aback with recent revelations,
Glass Report, The Film and TV Charity has made bullying and harassment a focus. “Structurally we are vulnerable to this happening because of the project-based nature of production work in particular and the large freelance workforce,” says Alex Pumfrey, ceo of the Film and TV Charity. She describes “the rather old fashioned tropes of the cigar-chomping producer and megaphone wielding director. Some sense of that still lingers. The people at the top – principally directors and producers – carry a great deal of power on the set. Some will treat that power extremely responsibly, others clearly do not.” “People often find it really challenging to speak
up and report those behaviours,” says Pumfrey… We are beginning to find that even where there are reporting channels, there’s still a really big hurdle for
“STRUCTURALLY WE ARE VULNERABLE TO THIS HAPPENING”
clearly not enough has been done” says Philippa Childs, Head of Bectu. “At the moment there’s no one clear policy that the whole industry works towards….. There needs to be clear process and policy ”
SEARCHING FOR SOLUTIONS Bectu is strongly behind the presence of trained safeguarding officials on set. On larger scale productions this would be a designated individual; on lower budget projects, this might fall to someone with a number of other roles. “I want to make sure that we haven’t got other serial offenders in their infancy, hopefully things can be nipped in the bud,” says Childs. Of course, an extra body on set is an extra cost.
Childs recognises that smaller productions may not find the funds for a separate body, but on larger productions a designated individual is a must. “Either
all its employees to finish Respect in the Workplace training. At the BFI, Hunter points to the half-hour, online training designed by ScreenSkills. While ScreenSkills includes training around bullying and harassment within its range of training programmes - including its popular Management and Leadership training - this online course is tailored for individuals and is free. It explains what constitutes bullying and harassment, who is responsible and how to challenge it. “There are a lot of people that look at the culture that surrounds them and think that’s the expected behaviour and that’s how they treat other people,” says Hunter. “That’s the cycle we need to break.” John McVay, Chief Executive of Pact talks about
the industry’s famous informality as a double-edged sword. “It’s why people like the industry, but that also means that people might be in positions of power that might abuse that power. Everyone needs to understand what is appropriate behaviour and what to do with that both legally and morally.” Is the industry ready to face down bullying and
harassment? “I like to think the tide is turning and the industry recognises the severity of the problem,” says Pumfrey. “There certainly isn’t any resistance, there’s a growing tide of willingness to effect these changes.”
To speak to someone about bullying or harassment you can call the Film and TV Charity’s 24-hour Support Line - 0800 054 0000 - to speak to an advisor or use their online resources
filmtvcharity.org.uk/bullying
Summer 2021
televisual.com 23
Good Omens
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