Hollywood Safety Training Program Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary — Occupational Health & Safety

Hollywood Safety Training Program Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary

The Safety Pass program has been integral in on-set safety training.

• By Robert Yaniz Jr.
• Nov 21, 2023

Since its inception in November 2003, Hollywood’s Safety Pass program has provided over 2.1 million hours of training to more than 100,000 industry professionals across the United States. Now the program is celebrating two decades of working on film and television production.

Developed by the Contract Services Administration Trust Fund, the Safety Pass program was created to establish a common safety framework for production workers, ensuring a consistent baseline of safety knowledge and practices across various sets and locations.

The program arose in the 1980s amidst calls for improved safety measures for the industry’s freelance workforce. Ultimately, the consensus between employers, unions and guilds—which required safety training in collective bargaining agreements—pushed the initiative forward.

Today, the Safety Pass program has more than 35 courses, which align with industry-wide safety standards. Some courses even require hands-on training at the Contract Services campus in Burbank, California. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Contract Services introduced a COVID-19 Prevention course, aiding the industry’s safe return to work.

Safety Pass training is now required in more than 20 union contracts, accounting for roughly 60,000 Southern California production workers, and is available elsewhere as well.