Charisse Beaumont, CEO of Black Lives in Music (BLiM), recently gave evidence to the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC), citing multiple examples from BLiM research into bullying and harassment in the UK music industry. Beaumont was on a panel also featuring Laura Snapes, deputy music editor at The Guardian, freelance soprano singer, Lucy Cox and singer/songwriter, Celeste Waite. During proceedings, BLiM called on the Labour government to enact the recommendations of the WEC’s Misogyny In Music inquiry - something the previous government did not do.
The Misogyny In Music Inquiry had asked ministers to take legislative steps to amend the Equality Act to ensure freelance workers have the same protections from discrimination as employees and bring into force section 14 to improve protections for people facing intersectional inequality. It also recommended the Government should legislate to impose a duty on employers to protect workers from sexual harassment by third parties, a proposal the previous Government initially supported, and then rejected. The Government also failed to give assurances that it would extend the time limit for bringing Equality Act-based claims to an employment tribunal from three to six months, as recommended by the Committee.
Beaumont presented example responses to BLiM’s anonymous survey, ‘YourSafetyYourSay’, which has helped amass evidence of bullying and harassment in the UK music industry.
“We have hundreds of stories from women of being harassed including sexually assaulted by male artists as well as promoters, people assaulting women in music education, participating in almost naked casting videos, young women pressured to drink and take drugs, who are then assaulted, male producers grooming young female vocalists,” reported Beaumont.