Home HR News Unions say Irish film industry workers bullied and harassed

Unions say Irish film industry workers bullied and harassed

Representatives of Irish film crews, including set designers and drivers, appeared at the Oireachtas Committee on Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht recently. Unions representing workers said issues of bullying, harassment, mistreatment of workers, breaches of health and safety and unsafe working practices have been reported to them.

The sector in Ireland is worth an estimated €550 million, directly employing 7,500 workers on a full-time basis.
Section 481 tax incentives, which production companies can claim and have helped fund thousands of productions, is currently under review.

Denise Walker, regional organiser for the GMB union said workers are being asked to work an average 55 hour week, this is above the Organisation of Working Time Act limit of 48 hours average over 16 weeks. Drivers also are regularly expected to work longer than 12 hours a day, breaching current legislation – and that rest periods were often ignored.

The committee was also told that in some cases workers with years of experience were being told they could only work on a project if it was as a trainee and on a trainee’s rate of pay.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and the British Film Institute (BFI) recently released the first set of guidelines to tackle harassment and bullying following the growing incidents in the industry.