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Bullying & Harassment

Bullying and harassment are unwanted behaviours that make someone feel intimidated or offended.

Although there is no legal definition of bullying, ACAS describes it as ‘unwanted behaviour from a person that is either: offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting; or an abuse or misuse of power that undermines, humiliates or causes physical or emotional harm to someone’. To be harassment, according to ACAS, the unwanted behaviour must have either ‘violated the person’s dignity, or created an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for the person’. It can be harassment if the behaviour ‘has one of these effects even if it was not intended, or intended to have one of these effects even if it did not have that effect’. Bullying is not against the law, but harassment is unlawful under the Equality Act 2010 when the unwanted behaviour relates to the protected characteristics of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation.

According to the BFI, bullying and harassment can be:

  • Intentional or unintentional, targeted at an individual or a group
  • Not specifically targeted but have an overall impact that creates a negative work environment
  • Repeated behaviour over a period of time, or one isolated incident
  • Between workers and/or managers at the same or different levels in the organisation
  • In the same or different departments or areas of work within or outside of the organisation
  • Between employees, workers and external contractors and/or clients within or outside of the organisation
  • Mobbing – when more than one person is involved
  • Neglect or marginalisation
  • During daily work activities, at work-organised events held on-site or off-site, inside and outside of working hours
  • Face-to-face, over the telephone, by email, text messages and online, e.g. social media platforms


Examples

Examples of bullying and harassment include but are not limited to:

  • Shouting, swearing, intimidating, threatening or throwing things
  • Belittling a person’s creative input
  • Unfairly blaming others – e.g. for the failures of technology; humiliation and ridicule either in private, at meetings or in front of others
  • Spreading malicious rumours, or insulting someone by word or behaviour
  • Copying memos that are critical about someone to others who do not need to know
  • Ridiculing or demeaning someone or picking on them
  • Innuendo or mockery
  • Threats, abuse, teasing, gossip, banter or practical jokes/pranks
  • Unwelcome sexual advances – touching, standing too close, the display of offensive materials, asking for sexual favours
  • Making decisions on the basis of sexual advances being accepted or rejected
  • Homophobic, racist or sexist comments, offensive gestures
  • Excluding individuals or groups or socially isolating them
  • Unfair treatment, such as tasks with unachievable deadlines
  • Overbearing supervision
  • Making threats or comments about job security without foundation
  • Deliberately undermining a competent worker by overloading them
  • Undermining with constant criticism
  • Preventing individuals progressing by intentionally blocking promotion or training opportunities
  • Intruding on a person’s privacy by pestering, spying or stalking
  • Tampering with a person’s personal belongings or work equipment
  • Cyber-bullying conducted online by email, online messaging, online gaming or social media channels, e.g. offensive language, embarrassing pictures or videos, fake profiles, death threats.

Make sure you are vigilant and sensitive about behaviours and take special care during busy periods when teams are working long hours to meet deadlines.
 

SexualHarassment

Sexual harassment is unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature. For example, language, suggestive remarks, innuendo in written or verbal communications, unwanted compliments with a sexual flavour, unwanted physical contact, e.g. hugging or stroking, promise of a reward in return for sexual favours or threats of retribution if sexual advances are rejected.

The Equality Act 2010 protects both employees and workers; contractors and self-employed people hired to personally do the work; and job applicants. Employers must do all they reasonably can to protect staff from sexual harassment and take steps to prevent it happening. Anyone who sexually harasses someone at work is responsible for their own actions, however employers are responsible too via ‘vicarious liability’ and therefore must to everything they reasonably can to protect staff from sexual harassment. Non-consensual sexual behaviour is classed as sexual assault or rape, as defined in the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

  • A hug, kiss on the cheek, or casual touch is not necessarily sexual harassment. The key is whether the behaviour was unwanted or offensive
  • It does not matter if a person has sexual feelings towards the recipient, only that the behaviour is of a sexual nature and that it was unwanted and/or offensive
  • Sexual harassment is gender neutral and orientation neutral. It can be perpetrated by any gender against any gender

 

EmployerResponsibilities

Within the creative industries, research has found bullying and harassment to be a huge issue. For example The State of Play report (2021) by BECTU on unscripted TV found that over 93% of respondents had experienced bullying or harassment in the TV industry, and only 11% who reported incidents felt that the matter had been resolved satisfactorily. The Film and TV Charity’s Looking Glass Survey (2022) reported a drop in the number of people who have experienced bullying and harassment from 53% in 2021 to 46% in 2022, but it must be noted that this is still nearly half of the workforce.

Employers have a duty of care to look after the wellbeing of their employees and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) states that companies should have "systems in place to deal with interpersonal conflicts such as bullying and harassment". As an employer, it is your responsibility to set up and apply a shared set of standards for behaviour and apply these consistently to all team members at all levels. Remember that behaviour that is considered bullying by one person, may not be by another and according to ACAS there can be ‘grey areas’.

Under the BBC's Respect at Work policy all production companies commissioned by the BBC must have a dignity in the workplace policy. The policy should remind everyone who works for them of their obligation to contribute to a respectful workplace. It should include details of the process for making a complaint and how it will be addressed. The policy should be shared with all members of cast and crew at the start of the production. The BBC expects best practice to be followed on all new commissions, and that all productions will have at least one named senior safeguarding contact (larger productions may need more).

The BFI has created a set of anti-bullying principles and accompanying guidelines. The aim of these is to prevent bullying, harassment and racism in the screen industries. They are designed to be a practical and easy to implement and are specific to the industry context of a highly-pressured, informal work environment, which is often inconsistent in dealing with workplace culture. They include recommendations aimed at both employers and workers. They will help workplaces go beyond legal requirements and create policies and procedures to identify and deal with bullying, harassment and racism if it occurs. The useful link section includes Pacts Anti-harassment and Bullying Policy template, the BFI Dignity at Work template, both of which you can adapt to create your own policy. The Principles are a condition of BFI funding and have been embedded in the BFI's Diversity Standards.
 

BFIPrinciples

  1. Everyone is responsible for creating and maintaining an inclusive workplace that is positive and supportive.
  2. We recognise that harassment may be unlawful under the Equality Act 2010.
  3. We will explicitly address and seek to prevent racism and all other forms of discrimination and bias, their manifestations and effects.
  4. Those of us who are employers accept our responsibilities under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
  5. We do not tolerate bullying and harassment on any grounds, including sexual harassment and racism, and will ensure that processes are in place for the reporting and investigation of these serious issues.
  6. We recognise that bullying, harassment and racism can have significant adverse impacts on the productivity, long-term physical and mental health and well-being of affected people and we will work to eradicate it. This will mean providing adequate protection for complainants and victims, and, where bullying, harassment or racism is found to have occurred, taking appropriate action against bullies or harassers. 
  7. We value inclusivity, appreciate difference, welcome learning from others, and consider people equal without prejudice or favour. We build relationships based on mutual respect. We will all work to give and receive feedback in a constructive way, which we know will improve creativity and productivity.
  8. We understand that reporting bullying, harassment and racism can be intimidating. We will respect confidentiality where possible and aim to make the process of reporting clear and straightforward. If anyone comes forward to report behaviour which might amount to bullying, harassment and/or racism, we will endeavour to investigate objectively. Individuals who have made complaints of bullying, harassment and/or racism or participate in good faith in any investigation should not suffer any form of reprisal or victimisation as a result. 
  9. We will respect each other’s dignity, regardless of the seniority of our role in an organisation.
     

BFI GuidanceFor Employers

The action list below is based on the BFI Principles and includes practical and achievable actions designed to assist employers to tackle bullying and harassment. As an employer you can make a statement about the kind of workplace and inclusive environment you want, implementing and communicating it to all workers. The BFI advises employers to:

  • Know your rights and responsibilities under employment law and formalise your processes.
  • Do the groundwork and develop a toolkit that works for your company (see useful links for the BFI and BAFTA template and ACAS resources). As a minimum, they recommend that your toolkit includes: the principles, a policy and a process. You can adapt a company-wide policy for productions of varying scales.
  • Take part in ScreenSkills’ training on tackling bullying and harassment, to help you identify bullying and harassment.
  • Show your commitment to an inclusive workplace by communicating and promoting the principles, policy and processes. For example, include the principles and policy during onboarding, put the Film and TV Charity's details on call sheets. 
  • Don’t be a bystander and challenge inappropriate behaviour or comments. Be proactive and don’t wait for a complaint – doing nothing can make you complicit and may make you legally liable. 
  • Define your process for investigating complaints with clear lines of accountability and designate at least two individuals who people can report bullying and harassment to. 
  • Use the Film and TV Charity’s Employer Support resources which recommend that you: Listen, Acknowledge and Act. See useful links for more details. 

We recommend you use the useful links below for more in-depth information and guidance around the BFI principles and guidance, The guidance offers detailed information about the duties and responsibilities of managers, heads of departments and team leaders, how to deal with a complaint, and tips for heads of departments and team leaders.

UsefulLinks