Producers and union form working group together with Hollywood Commission to implement its Respect On Set™ program.

LOS ANGELES – Low budget film producers and The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) have agreed to form a new subcommittee with the goal of ensuring that workers on set are free from harassment and discrimination. The first-of-its-kind collaboration will seek to implement the Hollywood Commission’s Respect on Set™ program, which offers employers who are signatories of IATSE’s Low Budget Agreement (LBA) a suite of services to help them create workplaces free from harassment and discrimination.

“We applaud the steps taken by low budget producers who, understandably, want their sets to be free from sexual harassment and abusive conduct. This collaboration will help ensure we meet that goal through our collective effort,” said IATSE International President Matthew D. Loeb. “We thank the Hollywood Commission for their leadership in this area and welcome the continued input of IATSE members and the entertainment community on how we can all best achieve our shared goals.”

Anita Hill, chair of the Hollywood Commission, said: “It is very significant that the producers and IATSE have added this plank to their agreement: employers have recognized their obligations toward providing a workplace free of harassment and abuse, and the Hollywood Commission is here to help them with a program that offers a good suite of resources. Workers and executives alike routinely tell us that there is a need for an independent reporting system specifically designed for low-budget productions, which have lacked the infrastructure to maintain robust enforcement protocols. Respect on Set fills that void.”

Monica Levinson, Bart Rosenblatt and Jeanette Volturno, founding members of INDIE Coalition, added, “As Independent Producers, we want our sets to be free from sexual harassment and abusive conduct. The independent community doesn’t have the HR resources of the studio system, so we are thrilled to collaborate on this endeavor.  We thank the Hollywood Commission for their leadership and assistance in this area, welcome input from IATSE workers and the community on how we can all best achieve our shared goal, and we look forward to exploring how Respect on Set can continue to assist in this area.”

The new subcommittee will be chaired by Hollywood Commission Executive Director Malia Arrington and will be empowered to explore how to best deploy the Commission’s newly developed Respect on Set™ program and other similar initiatives, with the goal of having the program’s services included as expanded provisions in IATSE’s 2025 LBA. 

Under provisions in the current agreement, employers must establish multiple avenues to report harassment or abusive conduct. Reports to the union or IATSE’s toll free on-set safety hotline (844-IA AWARE) are not considered a report to the employer unless the union advises the employer of the complaint. Meanwhile, both IATSE and employers are encouraged to advise covered crew members of the services available through the hotline and The Hollywood Commission.

The new subcommittee also includes IATSE VPs Michael Miller and Vanessa Holtgrewe, International Representatives Marisa Shipley and Jamie Fry, IATSE West Coast Associate Counsel Jacob J. White, and producers Jeanette Volturno, Monica Levinson and Bart Rosenblatt.

The Hollywood Commission’s recent surveys of entertainment workers have found that compared to their major-studio counterparts, workers on low budget productions experience more sexual coercion and assault and greater rates of gender and racial bias, but formally report these abuses at much lower rates. The survey results show that workers have the impression that nothing will be done if they make a formal complaint. The survey results can be found here. 

These steps will help prevent on-set sexual harassment and abuse on productions governed by the LBA, which covers films with budgets under $15 million. 

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FAQs:

How long will it take to adopt the program formally?
There is no formal timetable. The subcommittee’s first goal will be to define Respect on Set – to study the existing resources and come to a recommendation of the resources and protections that should be codified before a timetable for adoption can be set. 

When will Respect on Set launch?
Parts of Respect on Set are available now: a code of conduct, education resources, and a third-party reporting structure. Today’s announcement, and the significant step forward, is about the discussion of moving toward codifying structures like those available in Respect on Set in a future agreement. 

Will Respect on Set be available to producers before the subcommittee completes its work?Yes. We know there are producers who will welcome a turnkey program that provides their workers with these prevention programs and response initiatives, and we expect a robust response at launch. We are hopeful that the subcommittee will recommend encoding Respect on Set or a similar program as a formal requirement for all productions in future negotiations.

ABOUT IATSE
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees or IATSE (full name: International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada), is a labor union representing over 170,000 technicians, artisans and craftspersons in the entertainment industry, including live theatre, motion picture and television production, broadcast, and trade shows in the United States and Canada. For more information, please visit iatse.net

ABOUT THE HOLLYWOOD COMMISSION
Chaired by Anita Hill, The Hollywood Commission brings together entertainment executives, independent experts, and advisors to take the necessary collective steps towards tackling the culture of abuse and power disparity in the industry.

ABOUT THE RESPECT ON SET PROGRAM ™
The Hollywood Commission’s Respect on Set ™ program is a turnkey solution that includes a code of conduct, education resources, and a third-party reporting structure aimed at going above and beyond at ensuring low budget film and television producers and workers have sets free from sexual harassment.