Freelancers will no doubt now be fully aware of the story of Marc Hayward and his treatment of freelancers working on his productions. After some very brave whistleblowing by a number of individuals who worked for him, Hayward’s company Spark Content/Go TV Media was investigated by Insight TV, for whom he was making “G2 Making The Squad: Fortnite Edition”. That investigation turned up some pretty gruesome behaviour including bullying, enforcing excessive working hours and failing to pay people on time.

According to Deadline (well worth a read), Hayward‘s modus operandi was to regularly scream at and verbally abuse colleagues, “aggressively picking up a glass to a member of staff” and “putting a fist up” to another, along with failing to pay numerous people thousands of pounds on time, with some still owed money. All claims which were found to be borne out by the investigators.

After BECTU got involved (join the union people, you know it makes sense!), Insight TV agreed to pay the outstanding invoices for people who worked on their show, albeit they required freelancers to sign confidentiality clauses. Hayward himself claims that his company is now in liquidation, however there is no sign on Companies House of that happening yet, at least not at the time of writing.

Either way, there should clearly be no place for Hayward in our industry in the future. If he should crop up again, best advice is for everyone to continue to spread the word of his history. It would be a service to all as we clearly don’t need his type around, life being tough enough as it is.