Workplace Harassment Policy

1. Our position

Bullying, harassment and sexual harassment are not tolerated at BCS Latin Dance, in any form, by anyone, at any level. That includes the owner. Nobody is too senior, too popular, too long-standing or too good a dancer to be held to this.

We take every report seriously, we act on it, and we do not punish people for making one.

2. Who and where this covers

Who:

• Salsa Paul, as owner and instructor
• Any instructor, assistant instructor, DJ, host, volunteer or contractor working with us
• Students, drop-ins, guests and anyone attending a class or social night
• Venue staff and members of the public we deal with while running an event

Where: anywhere the activity is ours, not just inside a studio —

• Classes, courses, private lessons, workshops and social nights
• Any venue we rent, including its parking, entrances, washrooms and bar area
• Travel to and from events, socials afterwards, and dance trips
• Online: WhatsApp groups and direct messages, Instagram, email, comments and any other channel used to reach someone because of their connection to us

3. What counts as bullying and harassment

Any inappropriate conduct or comment by a person towards another that the person knew or reasonably ought to have known would cause them to be humiliated or intimidated. It does not include reasonable direction given in the course of teaching or running an event.

It is judged by the effect on the person, not by whether it was meant as a joke.

Examples

• Verbal aggression, insults, name-calling, mocking someone's dancing, body, accent or ability
• Spreading malicious rumours, or turning a group against someone
• Deliberately excluding or ignoring someone — never asking a particular person to dance as a way of freezing them out
• Intimidating gestures, invading someone's space, blocking their way, following them
• Repeated unwanted contact after being asked to stop
• Vandalising or hiding someone's belongings, shoes or bag

4. What counts as sexual harassment

Any unwelcome conduct, comment, gesture or contact of a sexual nature, or conduct directed at someone because of their sex, gender, gender identity or expression, or sexual orientation. It does not have to be repeated, and it does not have to be intended as sexual to land that way.

Partner dancing involves touch by design, which makes the line worth stating plainly rather than leaving to common sense. In this setting, sexual harassment includes:

• Contact outside the normal dance frame — hands moving to the lower back below the waist, hips, chest, thighs or buttocks; pulling someone closer than they have offered; pressing against them
• Using a "correction" as cover for touch — adjusting someone's ribs, hips or posture without asking, when a verbal cue or a demonstration would have done
• Persisting after "no" — asking again and again for a dance, a number, a date or a private lesson after being declined once
• Comments about someone's body, clothing or attractiveness, including "compliments" they have not invited
• Sexual jokes, innuendo, or explicit stories told where someone plainly does not want to hear them
• Staring, leering, or taking photographs or video of someone's body
• Sending sexual messages, images or unsolicited direct messages after class
• Trading on position — an instructor, host or DJ implying that attention, favouritism, a spot in a class, or a performance opportunity depends on a personal or sexual relationship

5. What is not harassment

So that the policy is usable rather than chilling, these are normal and expected:

• Ordinary teaching and correction — being told your timing is off, or that your frame has collapsed
• The physical contact partner dancing requires, in the standard positions, at the closeness both people have agreed to
• Reasonable direction about scheduling, payment, conduct at a venue, or asking someone to leave
• Raising a genuine concern about someone's behaviour through this policy
• Friendly conversation, invitations and social interest that stops the first time it is declined

6. What we each have to do

Everyone

• Do not engage in bullying, harassment or sexual harassment
• Report it if it happens to you, or if you see it happen to someone else
• Take part honestly in any investigation, and keep what you learn in it confidential

Instructors, DJs, hosts and volunteers

• Set the tone — most of what a room believes is acceptable, it learns from the front of the room
• Act on what you see without waiting for a formal complaint
• Pass every report to Paul promptly, even one raised casually

Salsa Paul, as owner

• Keep this policy current and review it at least once a year
• Make sure everyone teaching or helping knows it and knows how to report
• Investigate promptly and fairly, and take corrective action where a report is substantiated
• Keep records of reports, investigations and outcomes

7. How to report

8. No retaliation

Nobody will be penalised for making a report in good faith or for taking part in an investigation. That means no loss of a place in a class, no cold shoulder, no being dropped from an event, no quiet exclusion. Retaliation is itself a breach of this policy and is dealt with as one. A report that turns out to be mistaken is not a false report; only a knowingly untrue one is, and that is treated as misconduct.

9. Confidentiality

We share what we learn only with the people who need it to investigate or to act. We cannot promise total secrecy: fairness requires telling a respondent what has been alleged, and some situations carry a legal duty to report — see the limits on confidentiality.

10. Consequences

Depending on what happened and how serious it was: a conversation, a documented warning, removal from an event, a ban from classes and socials, the end of a working relationship, or a report to police. Fees are not refunded to someone excluded for harassment. Serious misconduct can result in immediate exclusion without a prior warning.

11. Training and review

Everyone who teaches, DJs, hosts or volunteers is taken through this policy before they start and is told how to receive and pass on a report. This policy is reviewed at least once a year, and after any incident that shows it needs changing.

12. Going outside us

You never have to come to us first. You are free to contact local authorities or the police at any point, including while we are investigating. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.