SAG-AFTRA has launched a new sexual harassment reporting tool called Safe Place where members can anonymously or with contact information report any incidents of sexual misconduct they experience or witness in the workplace. The tool is currently live at sagaftrasafeplace.org.
The union made the announcement at a press conference on April 29. SAG-AFTRA says the Safe Place reporting tool is a way for members who do not feel comfortable going directly to a SAG-AFTRA representative with their complaint, to discreetly report.
“It’s a platform that allows our members to safely, securely, and discreetly report incidences of sexual harassment that they may have experienced or witnessed,” said SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris at the press event. “In developing Safe Place, we conducted a comprehensive review of members’ needs. We listened to their concerns, we beta-tested [with] survivors. We engaged with diverse cross-sections of members to make sure their voices, and the needs of all the communities that we work with, were cared for and addressed. Our goal is to protect and empower the individual—to give them a voice.”
The Safe Place tool works on both desktop and mobile devices. Users can put their names on the report or they can report anonymously. The reports will be handled by SAG-AFTRA’s Equity & Inclusion team, who are trained in trauma awareness. The team will guide the user on the best course of action, as well as provide additional resources. Anyone who reports can ask SAG-AFTRA to investigate, they can ask the union to wait before taking further action, or they can ask that no action be taken.
SAG-AFTRA said that future plans for Safer Place include the ability to flag names that appear in multiple reports.
SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director David White told Backstage that the union can take multiple courses of action in response to a complaint: “Sometimes that is an informal conversation to let somebody know that something’s going on, that it’s making someone uncomfortable—a field rep can do that. Sometimes it’s a call to labor relations at a studio or directly to the leadership of a union, as an example, to see whether or not you can work something out informally.”
There’s also more “formal intervention,” said White. “Our staff will go in, conduct an investigation, be as involved and take whatever action is necessary. Again, we will do what it takes to keep somebody safe at work. That’s our charge.”
In recent years, SAG-AFTRA has created a Code of Conduct on Sexual Harassment, as well as negotiated stronger provisions into its work contracts with studio and network producers to protect actors who have to do intimate or highly exposed scenes. The union has also called for an end to auditions and meetings in hotel rooms and personal residences—situations that put actors in highly vulnerable positions.
SAG-AFTRA is also working with “allies” in the industry such as Anita Hill’s Hollywood Commission, who is creating their own reporting tool for harassment, according to White. He noted that it is his hope that other unions create similar tools and that those platforms can “work with one another” to address harassment, especially when it concerns members of different unions.
SAG-AFTRA is also focused on other measures such as “expand[ing] our collective bargaining provisions in the area of protecting and preventing sexual harassment, and working through legislative efforts,” White added.
On the same day, SAG-AFTRA also announced it is also creating a registry of intimacy coordinators, which will also vet intimacy coordinator training programs to make sure they meet industry standards. In recent years, intimacy coordinators have become more common on screen and stage productions, as they ensure that actors feel safe and are adequately prepared when they are called on to do nude or intimate scenes.
“The Harvey Weinstein moment happened, and we had to make real change, we had to do something,” said Carteris. “This is really our way of trying to create true systemic change… We want to make sure that the stories that we’ve been hearing, no longer will be allowed.”