Preventing Sexual Harassment: An Important Message from SAG-AFTRA

Dear Member,

It has been three years since a group of brave women came forward with stories of sexual harassment, assault and rape perpetrated by Harvey Weinstein, at the time one of the most powerful people in the entertainment industry.

Since then, countless women and men have come forward to expose the industry’s pervasive sexual harassment problem, to bring perpetrators to justice and to work for real, lasting change.

SAG-AFTRA has been there right alongside them, creating safer working conditions for our members and the industry as a whole. We have:

• Developed and released the definitive code of conduct to prevent harassment and assault in the industry;
• Put a stop to improper private meetings in hotel rooms and personal residences; and
• Built internal and external programs and retrained our staff to provide support to survivors who wish to report an incident or who need therapeutic resources or other assistance.

Critically, we have also negotiated stronger provisions into our major contracts with studio and network producers that guarantee our members significant rights in intimate and highly exposed production scenes. To help familiarize you with some of the newest provisions, actors and SAG-AFTRA members Michelle Hurd and Kate Rigg created Sex, Nudity & You, a concise rundown of some of the protections now afforded to performers shooting nude, semi-nude, simulated sex and intimate scenes. We’re grateful to Michelle and Kate for their work in ensuring our members know their rights.

Members looking for a more detailed review of these provisions can also refer to SAG-AFTRA’s new Quick Guide for Scenes Involving Nudity and Simulated Sex. 

Additionally, SAG-AFTRA is promoting the on-set safety and dignity of members by helping to build and empower the intimacy coordinator profession. Over the next few months, the union will be working with top intimacy coordinators on standards for training and certification, building on the release earlier this year of its landmark Standards & Protocols for the Use of Intimacy Coordinators.

Unfortunately, there is still much to do and sexual harassment remains an all-too-common occurrence. To help members who have experienced or witnessed sexual harassment in the workplace, SAG-AFTRA has developed a mobile app reporting tool that will allow them to easily report these incidents and receive referrals for therapeutic, legal and law enforcement assistance. The app will also collect data to identify serial abusers. The beta version will be in limited testing with members later this month, and a full release to the membership is expected later this year. 

We hope you will take advantage of these resources, and we will keep you updated as new ones become available.

In unity,

Gabrielle Carteris
SAG-AFTRA President

David White
SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director