A new survey from Acas puts a number on something every production manager already senses: it is conduct, not competence, that most often tips into disciplinary action. Published on 20 August 2026 and based on a YouGov poll of 1,050 senior decision makers across British businesses, it asked which behaviours would most likely trigger disciplinary action. The five most common answers were:
(Acas and its Code of Practice apply in England, Scotland and Wales. In Northern Ireland the equivalent body is the Labour Relations Agency, with its own code.)
Four of the top five are about behaviour, towards work and towards other people, rather than the quality of the work itself. Attendance leads, with bullying and rudeness not far behind, which matters for a sector already focused on conduct and culture. The survey reflects businesses across the economy, not the screen sector specifically, but the pattern travels and the friction that ends up in a formal process is usually about how people show up and how they treat each other.
Screen work concentrates every one of these pressures. Teams are assembled at speed and often for a single production, hours can be long and unsociable, schedules unforgiving, and hierarchies on set steep. A no-show that a corporate office could absorb can bring a shoot day to a very costly standstill. A short temper under pressure lands harder when people barely know each other and have no time to repair the damage. Trust is the currency that keeps a set working, and conduct problems spend it quickly.
Acas’s own message is that early handling is what makes the difference. Its chair, Baroness Maggie Jones, put it simply: issues are best “dealt with as early as possible”, and “handling concerns that come up early can save on costs and stress for everyone concerned”. On a production that usually means a quiet word before a problem sets, honest and timely feedback, and, if a relationship has really soured, choosing mediation rather than a formal fight.
WorkWise for Screen has short, practical pieces on each of these, from having a quiet chat first to navigating conflict and using mediation.
Although the aim is to deal with things while they are still small, not everything can be resolved with a conversation, and when conduct crosses a line, a fair process protects both the individual and the business. That means following the Acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures: investigate, put the concern in writing, hold a hearing, allow the individual to be accompanied, and offer an appeal.
A tribunal can adjust a compensation award by up to 25% where an employer has unreasonably failed to follow the Acas Code, and from 1 October 2026 the window for bringing most tribunal claims doubles to six months, so the records that show a fair process was followed need to be kept for longer and found more easily. Acas has also consulted on a revised Code; our separate article on that sets out what is changing.
Some of these behaviours are more than conduct issues. Bullying and harassment engage your business’s positive duty to prevent harassment, which is strengthened from 30 October 2026 to a duty to take all reasonable steps, with liability for third-party harassment. Handling conduct well, early, consistently and on the record, is part of meeting that duty.
The Acas survey is a useful prompt rather than a new rule. For screen businesses the lesson is the one that keeps a set running anyway: notice the small things, deal with them early and fairly, and protect the trust a production depends on. Escalation is almost always more expensive than a quiet and timely word.
Last updated 30/10/2026