IATSE Forms Sexual Harassment Prevention Subcommittee With Low-Budget Producers

Katie Campione
·2 min read

IATSE is forming a subcommittee with the low budget film producers to address sexual harassment on film and TV sets.

The primary mission of the subcommittee is to implement the Hollywood Commission’s Respect on Set program, which provides services to all signatories of IATSE’s Low Budget Agreement (LBA) (which covers films with budgets under $15M).

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Those services are aimed at helping them create workplaces free from harassment and discrimination. They include a code of conduct, education resources, and a third-party reporting structure. The goal for the subcommittee to actually implement and expand these services ahead of IATSE’s 2025 LBA, so they can be included as provisions in the new agreement.

This marks a first-of-its-kind collaboration, as it is a commitment to creating enforceable standards for sexual harassment in a collective bargaining agreement.

So far, there’s to timetable for when the committee is expected to roll out these implementations.

Hollywood Commission Executive Director Malia Arrington will chair the subcommittee, which also includes IATSE VPs Mike 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.

“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, added: “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.”

In IATSE’s current LBA, employers must establish multiple avenues to report harassment or abusive conduct, which does not include any complaints made to the union itself.

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