BrewDog's co-founder and chief executive has formally complained to media regulator Ofcom over a string of personal attacks on his character in the BBC Scotland documentary The Truth About BrewDog.
James Watt has also filed a formal complaint direct to the BBC.
The Disclosure documentary was first broadcast on 24 January, with its most explosive accusations relying largely on the testimony of US-based ex-employees, which the broadcaster failed to put to the company before transmission.
A statement from Watt explained that had the BBC put allegations to him beforehand, they would have addressed, as they have now done in the complaint.
It was shown again on 23 February with eight corrections, which Watt says highlights "the litany of errors" contained within the programme, but still containing the most serious claims against him.
The claims broadcast included warnings that were made to new female employees about Watt, and the allegation that some female members of staff were deliberately scheduled off-shift or accompanied by others to avoid attention from him.
BrewDog has presented evidence - including shift rota data held by a third party and witness statements from fellow managers - to the regulator, suggesting that the claims are provably false.
The documentary was the culmination of several months of bad press for the Ellon-based brewer and its boss, following an open letter being published last summer by a group of former and current employees called Punks With Purpose.
BrewDog commissioned an independent report by workplace consultancy Wiser, which concluded last year that staff were "really passionate about the brand", but felt that the company's structure "hasn't matured in line with the company's growth".
It added that some current employees felt "uncomfortable speaking up and challenging", which was "partly related to James [Watt's] previous demanding leadership style and the way decisions were made in previous eras".
Allan Leighton, the former Asda chief executive brought in as a non-executive chair to mentor Watt and tackle the "toxic" workplace culture, responded to the report by stating that BrewDog was the target of the “most extreme case we've seen of a small group of former employees on a mission to cause damage to a brand”.
BrewDog has around 5,000 ex-employees and a current staff of 2,400 - which is set to grow by up to an additional 800 employees by the end of 2022, following a string of new bar and hotel openings.
A summary of the complaint noted that “it should also have been apparent to the BBC that many of their sources were ex-employees who have an axe to grind, and if their accounts were broadcast at all then full information on this point should have been put before the viewer in order to properly weigh their accounts”.
It also argued that the publicly-available statistics of the Wiser Report ought also to have given the BBC pause, indicating that the information they were receiving from individuals put forward by Punks With Purpose might not be reflective of the current culture at the company, and “instead indicative of potential extraordinary biases and/or dishonesty within their self-selecting sample”.
Watt is also complaining that the BBC documentary also included inaccuracies over BrewDog’s Lost Forest project, its Buy One Get One Tree promotion and the Equity for Punks share scheme, as well as an allegation that the company failed to act on the results of a 2019 staff survey.
He commented: “The grossly false picture painted by this documentary is simply not true - these are deeply hurtful and damaging lies based on the claims of a very small group of ex-employees working directly with the BBC, and I will fight to put the record straight.
“For a national broadcaster to come out with a hatchet-job like this beggars belief; the BBC should apologise.”
A response from the BBC read: “We stand by our journalism and look forward to putting our case via the proper channels in due course - it is BBC policy to give subjects of investigations a fair opportunity to respond to allegations, which is what we did in this case.
“The documentary, which was fair and balanced, included responses from BrewDog’s lawyer. Mr Watt declined our offer to be interviewed for the programme.”
BrewDog’s lawyers have written to the broadcaster citing Section 5.2 of Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code, which states that “significant mistakes in news should normally be acknowledged and corrected on air quickly”.
BrewDog has followed up with a complaint directly to the regulator about the programme over two further alleged breaches of the Code, including Section 7.9, which seeks to ensure that “material facts have not been presented, disregarded or omitted in a way that is unfair to an individual or organisation”.
It is now up to Ofcom to decide whether to launch a formal investigation following the outcome of the BBC complaints process.
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