“Workplace conflict leads to a staggering £1.8 billion in lost productivity and growth each year in the UK’s creative industries and impacts around 700,000 people”

The Film and TV Charity has published its latest Looking Glass ‘24 Deep Dive, focusing on workplace bullying, harassment and discrimination in the UK screen sector, with the key headlines being that managers are identified as a central driver of harmful behaviours and freelancers with multiple marginalised identity characteristics are at increased risk.

Published during Bullying Awareness Week, and with rates of bullying, harassment, and discrimination up to three times worse in the film and TV industry than in the wider working population, the report delves more deeply into data from the Charity’s 2024 Looking Glass Report.

It outlines areas where progress has been seen, how it disproportionately affects some groups, as well as calling for an urgent need for further change.

Key Insights:
• A widespread problem: 32% had experienced bullying or harassment over the past 12 months. 19% had experienced discrimination. Combined, 41% (two in every five respondents) had experienced bullying, harassment, or discrimination over the past 12 months.
• Culture of silence: Over half (53%) of those who experienced bullying, harassment, or discrimination in the past year did not report it to anyone.
• Leadership accountability: 74% of those who experienced bullying or harassment identified their manager as the source.
• Lack of industry’s capability: 42% of respondents do not believe that reports of bullying, harassment, or discrimination would be acted on where they work, regardless of who the perpetrator is.
• Training gaps: 27% of respondents who had a colleague report such behaviour felt unequipped to respond effectively

Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority CEO Jen Smith emphasised the economic impact of the issue, stressing: “The failure to grip this problem has significant economic consequences; workplace conflict leads to a staggering £1.8 billion in lost productivity and growth each year in the UK’s creative industries and impacts around 700,000 people. CIISA exists to close the damaging accountability gap that has persisted for too long in our creative sector.

“The Film and TV Charity’s work in uncovering and addressing the devastating human cost of bullying, harassment, and discrimination in the screen industries is vital and we are grateful for their valuable partnership, as we work towards our shared aims through our distinctive roles.”

Marcus Ryder, CEO of the Film and TV Charity, added: “We’ve timed the publication of this latest Looking Glass Deep Dive for Bullying Awareness Week so that it can serves as a call to action – not just for policymakers and industry leaders, but for everyone working in film and TV. The culture of silence the report highlights must end, informal hierarchies must be challenged, and the belief that change is impossible must give way to the conviction that it can – and is – happening.”

The report highlights that experiences of bullying or harassment in the past 12 months were disproportionately reported by certain demographic groups: individuals with a disability (40%, compared to 30% among those with no disability), neurodivergent respondents (39%, compared to 30% among neurotypical respondents), those caring for adult dependents (38%, compared to 29% among those caring for children and 32% among those with no caring responsibilities), Black and Global Majority respondents (36%, compared to 31% among white respondents), LGBTQ+ respondents (36%, compared to 32% among heterosexual respondents),women (35%, compared to 27% among men), and Hindus (52%), Buddhists (43%), and Muslims (42%). The data also allowed for more specific detail on the nature of discrimination certain groups faced (*see notes for further detail).

Intersectional analysis reveals that individuals with multiple marginalised identity characteristics face even greater risks. For example, nearly half (46%) of Black and Global Majority respondents from working-class backgrounds reported experiencing bullying or harassment in the past 12 months – significantly higher than their peers from other combinations of ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds.

However, the data does reveal a gradual decline in the prevalence of bullying, harassment, and discrimination in the film and TV industry – falling from 53% in 2021 to 46% in 2022, and now 41% in 2024.

The forthcoming full launch of the CIISA is timely, with managers and non-managers indicating in the analysis that a confidential, independent reporting body would be helpful for dealing with incidences of bullying, harassment, and

You can read the report in full here.

discrimination.

*The Charity’s Bullying Advice Service, launched in 2021, continues to provide impartial, one-to-one support and guidance for all industry professionals, whether freelance or permanent, who have experienced or witnessed such behaviour while working in the sector.

Image “Woman Showing Signs of Workplace Stress” by CIPHR Connect is licensed under CC BY 2.0.