Workplace Bullying
Whakawetiweti ā-Wāhi Mahi
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Workplace bullying
This chapter provides guidance on the prevention and response to bullying in the New Zealand screen industry.
This chapter is primarily based on guidance issued by WorkSafe New Zealand.
Introduction
This chapter provides guidance on the prevention and response to bullying in the New Zealand screen industry, from the initial concept for the film, television show or advertisement, to casting, production, post production through to the final delivery of the project.
Everyone involved in the screen industry is responsible for creating an environment where individuals are treated with respect and dignity.
Bullying during any stage of a production can have serious effects on the health and safety, and the overall performance, of workers.
Bullying is unacceptable both morally and legally – as outlined in the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.
Who needs to read this?
All workers on a production have a legal duty to ensure health and safety legislation, regulations and guidelines are followed, and are directly responsible for their individual conduct.
Anyone working within or with the screen industry, including those responsible for engaging with talent and crew on a production, should follow these guidelines.
Roles that have direct influence over other workers should also read the ‘planning and guidance considerations and responsibilities’ section; this includes production company representatives, casting agents, agents, cast, producers, directors, production managers, heads of departments, assistant directors, health and safety officers, and location managers, along with any other crew and all other contractors.
Definitions
Workplace bullying, as defined by WorkSafe New Zealand, is repeated and unreasonable behaviour directed towards a worker or group of workers that can lead to physical or psychological harm.
What we need to know about workplace bullying
* Find out more about what workplace bullying is, and is not, on the WorkSafe New Zealand website.
Discussion between workers, even when there are different ideas / disagreement of ideas, can be useful if it promotes new solutions and ideas; however, this needs to be observed as it could escalate to bullying.
When Can Bullying Occur?
Bullying could:
- be between managers and workers, or co-workers, or workers and visitors on set;
- occur at any time;
- be carried by one or multiple people;
- be directed at one or multiple people;
- occur outside of work hours.
Bullying can be carried out in person, by email, text messages, internet chat rooms or other social media channels.
How to Identify Workplace Bullying – what Kind of Behaviour Can Be Perceived as Bullying?
Bullying can be physical, verbal or relational / social (such as excluding someone from a peer group or spreading rumours).
Common bullying behaviours fit into two main categories:
1. Attacks that are direct and personal
- such as belittling remarks, silent treatment, attacking a person’s beliefs, race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, lifestyle or appearance, threats of violence, humiliations, intimidation, unwanted sexual approaches, verbal abuse; or
2. Attacks that are indirect and task related
- such as impossible deadlines or tasks, meaningless tasks, withholding information, constant criticism of work, underwork, unreasonable monitoring, no support from manager, scapegoating.
Minimum responsibilities for everyone
Everyone involved in a screen production should read and understand this section.
Everyone involved in a production should have read the section on ‘what we need to know about workplace bullying’ above and:
- understand what workplace bullying is;
- understand how to identify workplace bullying; and
- ensure they advise the health and safety officer, their direct supervisor, the assistant directors, and/or the production manager/office if they become aware of bullying.
* Download the "Bullying at Work: Advice for Workers - Quick Guide" by clicking the image below.
* For more detail on roles and responsibilities regarding workplace bullying see section 3.8 of WorkSafe New Zealand’s Good Practice Guide ‘Preventing and responding to bullying at work’.
Planning and Guidance Considerations and Responsibilities
Everyone who is responsible for, or has influence over, an activity or task in relation to a production should read and understand this section, as well as the minimum responsibilities for everybody.
This includes funders, production company representatives, directors, producers, production managers, line producers, heads of department, assistant director/s and health and safety officers. All of whom should follow the guidance provided in the below sections on assessing the risk and managing the risk, as well as the section for their specific role.
Assessing the Risk
How Can You Tell if Bullying is Occurring?
Anyone who is responsible for an activity or task in relation to a production should understand what workplace bullying is, when it may occur and
know how to identify it.
We are all responsible for taking reasonable care of our own health and safety and ensuring that our actions, or inactions, do not harm others – including understanding bullying.
A good starting point to tell if bullying is occurring is to look at, but not limited to:
- unexpected turnover of workers;
- unexpected absenteeism – sick leave;
- formal complaints / reports of unreasonable behaviour;
- worker interviews / focus groups; or
- feedback from workers or/or health and safety representatives.
* Detailed information can be found in tables 4 and 5 in section 2 of WorkSafe New Zealand’s Good Practice Guide ‘Preventing and responding to bullying at work’.
Managing the risk
Bullying
It is unlikely you will ever be able to completely eliminate bullying; however, you must, so far as is reasonable, minimise the likelihood of bullying by putting in control measures and effectively managing it when it does occur.
You can help minimise bullying by:
- building good relationships in a respectful work environment;
- developing good managers;
- educating workers about bullying;
- making sure your workers know how to report unreasonable behaviour;
- making sure everyone knows their responsibilities;
- making your anti-bullying policies, processes and systems transparent; and
- providing support to workers who experience unreasonable behaviour.
This could include having a code of conduct – for an example see the NZ Police Code of Conduct: https://www.police.govt.nz/about-us/publication/new-zealand-police-code-conduct
* Detailed information about how you can minimise bullying can be found in section 3 of WorkSafe New Zealand’s Good Practice Guide ‘Preventing and responding to bullying at work’.
ScreenSafe highly recommends everyone who is responsible for, or has influence over, an activity or task in relation to a production read this section.
Investigating Bullying
Quick Guide ‘Preventing and responding to bullying at work: Advice for small businesses’
The below flow chart can help you decide what approach to take.
Detailed information about who can help in cases of bullying can be found in section 6 of WorkSafe New Zealand’s Good Practice Guide ‘Preventing and responding to bullying at work’. This section outlines relevant legislation and external parties who can help you and / or your workers.
Workplace Anti-bullying Policy
Consider developing an anti-bullying policy to sit alongside your health and safety policy.
The policy should:
- define bullying;
- state what will be done on the production to minimise the risk of bullying;
- outline workers responsibilities;
- outline procedures for reporting bullying risks; and
- outline procedures for managing bullying.
* An anti-bullying policy template can be found HERE
Responsibilities
Funders
Funders should:
- incorporate anti-bullying clauses, such as implementing an anti-bullying policy, in the funding agreement.
Production Company
The production company (likely to have primary responsibility over health and safety on the production) should develop an anti-bullying policy.
Producer / Production Manager / Line Producer / Director / Heads of Department
As positions with oversight across the production, Producers, Production Managers, Line Producers, Directors and Heads of Departments should:
- understand how to identify bullying;
- minimise bullying as far as is reasonably practicable, following the guidelines outlined in ‘managing the risk’;
- investigate any claims of bullying.
Assistant Director/s
The Assistant Director/s should:
- understand how to identify bullying and the processes for dealing with bullying.
Health and Safety Officer
The Health and Safety Officer should:
- work with Producers, Production Managers, Line Producers, Directors and Heads of Departments to help identify and investigate bullying.
Who can help?
Acts of violence should be reported to the Police as soon as possible; this could be verbal (verbal abuse, threats, shouting, swearing) or physical (stalking, throwing objects, hitting, damage to property).
As outlined in WorkSafe’s quick guide “Bullying at Work: Advice for Workers”, help and advice may be found from places like:
- WorkSafe, as New Zealand’s primary health and safety regulator: 0800 030 040 (24 hours)
- Human Rights Commission (for complaints about discrimination): https://tikatangata.org.nz
- Community law centres: http://communitylaw.org.nz
- The Citizens Advice Bureau: www.cab.org.nz
- Helplines such as Lifeline 0800 543 354, Samaritans 0800 726 666 and Healthline 0800 611 116 (for more information see: www.mentalhealth.org.nz/get-help/in-crisis/helplines)
- NetSafe (for cyberbullying): www.netsafe.org.nz/what-is-cyberbullying
