Dear Flipside Media
I am writing to tell you that your job role description about an apprentice digital video production producer has many problems that need to be looked at. Your job description is not explicit; it doesn't give a lot of detail about the job and the salary and hours are very broad. Between 10-45 hours is quite the difference and doesn't give people much to think about or work around. You should be clearer with the hours and not have such a huge gap difference of hours per week. The same can be said with the salary £15000 - £35000 per annum. This is also a huge difference in how much an employee can get paid and also it says “+ benefits” how much more with benefits? You need to make sure there is much more detail in the job description so it’s easily understandable to people reading about the job and will know exactly what your job consists of.
Contacts are written or spoken legal agreements which is intended to be enforced by the law. Contracts are used in employment and freelance to tell you how long your employment will last and what you need to achieve. Contracts are also used for sales or tenancy. Make sure you read contracts carefully You will need to be clear what you are being asked to do, when you will be required to work and what payment you will receive.
A confidentiality clause is an agreement an employee agrees to not disclose information whether directly or indirectly. If an employee who signed and agreed to the clause reveals any confidential information made unlawfully outside the proper course of duty will be treated as a serious disciplinary offence. For example actors making a new film will have to be careful not to reveal any confidential information about the film. Also NHS staff members have a legal duty of confidence to patients.
Exclusivity agreement means an agreement between two or more parties to purchase goods exclusively from the specified seller in agreement. It is a legal document which states the buyer where a buyer agrees to buy exclusively from the seller and will not obtain or request goods provided by the seller from anybody else for the time period and the seller is the exclusive supplier of such goods to the buyer. If the parties fail to do as the agreement states they will face legal actions against them. The severity of the actions may vary depending on each situation.
The Equality Act became law in October which legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and states you what you need to do to make it a fair environment. The Equality Act replaced other previous anti-discrimination laws and covers the same groups such as, age, gender, race, marriage, religion etc. Looking at your job description it does not follow The Equality Act legislation, It state you are looking for a male/female aged below 30 which is violating the employment legislation as discrimination on age is illegal “The Act protects people of all ages”. It also states you are looking for someone with certain religious views, this being Christian. The equality act says “employees or job seekers are protected if they do not follow a certain religion or have no religion at all”. The Equal Opportunities legislation is requirement that all people should be treated fairly and given the same opportunity no matter their race, sex, religion etc.” You said on the job description small print "As we are a Christian lead organisation, you should promote the ideas of the Christian faith and try to encourage young people to contact us for further help and guidance. However this goes against regulatory code "4.5 Religious Programmes on television services must not seek recruits. This does not apply to specialist religious television services. Religious programmes on radio services may seek recruits."
A trade union is an organized association of workers in a trade or profession which fights for the workers right and interests, speaking on behalf of their members and aim to protect their members. This includes making sure that workplaces are safe for people's health and that there is no risk through their jobs. Trade union also means legal protection by employing lawyers to make sure companies and organisations treat their staff accordance to to the law. Trade union also helps workers by aiming to improve pay and work conditions.
Codes of practice provides practical guidance for people about health and safety in work and effective ways to identify and manage risk. Code of practice is not a law; it can be different depending on the workplace. The code of practice is written up by the employer as well as policies and procedures to protect employees from any risks that could happen at work. Having codes of practice in place could avoid legal issues if an employee is injured at work but the codes of practice states the risk and how to manage it the employee cannot press charges.
In your job description it says “Including female victims and make offenders”. Here you are representing that males are only rape offenders and female are only victims of rape, this is just not true and negative stereotyping. Males can also be the victims of rape. What you’re saying is very stereotypical, unprofessional and must be changed as it will cause offence. This goes against Ofcom regulations Harm & Offense "2.1 Generally accepted standards must be applied to the contents of television and radio services so as to provide adequate protection for members of the public from the inclusion in such services of harmful and/or offensive material".
Media Representation though social concerns and the ways certain individuals, groups of people, place and issues are portrayed by the media, this can create, or exacerbate social problems. For example youths are represented as “yobs” and cause trouble to the older generation but this is just a stereotype and how it is sometimes shown in the media which can have a big effect on audiences by manipulating their opinion on a certain topic.
Your proposed short documentary about the No Means No date rape campaign to be shown to children at high school I think will violate the Ofcom broadcasting code, particularly protecting the under 18s and Harm and Offence sections. For example I think this video proposal will affect the high school children and Ofcom states under Protecting under 18s 1.1 "Material that might seriously impair the physical, mental or moral development of people under eighteen must not be broadcast." The topic of the video is very serious and may affect the children mentally, physically and is inappropriate. You also want interviews of teenage victims of rape which goes against the ofcom broadcasting code protecting under 18s "1.29 People under eighteen must not be caused unnecessary distress or anxiety by their involvement in programmes or by the broadcast of those programmes." The Ofcom regulation also states "1.8 Where statutory or other legal restrictions apply preventing personal identification, broadcasters should also be particularly careful not to provide clues which may lead to the identification of those who are not yet adults and who are, or might be, involved as victim, witness, defendant or other perpetrator in the case of sexual offences featured in criminal, civil or family court proceedings." This is a regulation you must be aware of when interviewing people under the age of 18 about rape.
The Obscene Publications Act 1959 is an act of Parliament that significantly reformed the law related to obscenity in England and Wales. To amend the law relating to obscene matter and to provide the protection of literature and to strengthen the law concerning pornography. I feel the use of re-enactments and Dramatizations will violate this act and be too obscene to the children viewers.
Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind such as inventions, artistic work, images, music, words etc. This law enables people exclusive rights, to earn recognition and financial benefit from what they create. This means people wanting to use a creation which isn't theirs will have to get permission from the creator. Types of Intellectual Property include copyright, trademarks and patents. In your job description you said that you want "a popular music soundtrack that will appeal to the target audience". This has legal issues and falls into copyright law, you must take into account you cannot just use a popular soundtrack in your video which will be shown to the public without permission from the artist first to use the soundtrack. You also said the applicant will be up to the value of £20, "You will be recompensed up to the value of £20 for the production of the video". However this price will not pay for the cost of the video production and copyright issues as a popular music soundtrack will most likely cost much more than £20.
I hope you take all this into account and change your job advert carefully making it more suitable and appropriate and making sure it fits all the regulations before sending it out.
Yours Sincerely
Ed Shaw
I am writing to tell you that your job role description about an apprentice digital video production producer has many problems that need to be looked at. Your job description is not explicit; it doesn't give a lot of detail about the job and the salary and hours are very broad. Between 10-45 hours is quite the difference and doesn't give people much to think about or work around. You should be clearer with the hours and not have such a huge gap difference of hours per week. The same can be said with the salary £15000 - £35000 per annum. This is also a huge difference in how much an employee can get paid and also it says “+ benefits” how much more with benefits? You need to make sure there is much more detail in the job description so it’s easily understandable to people reading about the job and will know exactly what your job consists of.
Contacts are written or spoken legal agreements which is intended to be enforced by the law. Contracts are used in employment and freelance to tell you how long your employment will last and what you need to achieve. Contracts are also used for sales or tenancy. Make sure you read contracts carefully You will need to be clear what you are being asked to do, when you will be required to work and what payment you will receive.
A confidentiality clause is an agreement an employee agrees to not disclose information whether directly or indirectly. If an employee who signed and agreed to the clause reveals any confidential information made unlawfully outside the proper course of duty will be treated as a serious disciplinary offence. For example actors making a new film will have to be careful not to reveal any confidential information about the film. Also NHS staff members have a legal duty of confidence to patients.
Exclusivity agreement means an agreement between two or more parties to purchase goods exclusively from the specified seller in agreement. It is a legal document which states the buyer where a buyer agrees to buy exclusively from the seller and will not obtain or request goods provided by the seller from anybody else for the time period and the seller is the exclusive supplier of such goods to the buyer. If the parties fail to do as the agreement states they will face legal actions against them. The severity of the actions may vary depending on each situation.
The Equality Act became law in October which legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and states you what you need to do to make it a fair environment. The Equality Act replaced other previous anti-discrimination laws and covers the same groups such as, age, gender, race, marriage, religion etc. Looking at your job description it does not follow The Equality Act legislation, It state you are looking for a male/female aged below 30 which is violating the employment legislation as discrimination on age is illegal “The Act protects people of all ages”. It also states you are looking for someone with certain religious views, this being Christian. The equality act says “employees or job seekers are protected if they do not follow a certain religion or have no religion at all”. The Equal Opportunities legislation is requirement that all people should be treated fairly and given the same opportunity no matter their race, sex, religion etc.” You said on the job description small print "As we are a Christian lead organisation, you should promote the ideas of the Christian faith and try to encourage young people to contact us for further help and guidance. However this goes against regulatory code "4.5 Religious Programmes on television services must not seek recruits. This does not apply to specialist religious television services. Religious programmes on radio services may seek recruits."
A trade union is an organized association of workers in a trade or profession which fights for the workers right and interests, speaking on behalf of their members and aim to protect their members. This includes making sure that workplaces are safe for people's health and that there is no risk through their jobs. Trade union also means legal protection by employing lawyers to make sure companies and organisations treat their staff accordance to to the law. Trade union also helps workers by aiming to improve pay and work conditions.
Codes of practice provides practical guidance for people about health and safety in work and effective ways to identify and manage risk. Code of practice is not a law; it can be different depending on the workplace. The code of practice is written up by the employer as well as policies and procedures to protect employees from any risks that could happen at work. Having codes of practice in place could avoid legal issues if an employee is injured at work but the codes of practice states the risk and how to manage it the employee cannot press charges.
In your job description it says “Including female victims and make offenders”. Here you are representing that males are only rape offenders and female are only victims of rape, this is just not true and negative stereotyping. Males can also be the victims of rape. What you’re saying is very stereotypical, unprofessional and must be changed as it will cause offence. This goes against Ofcom regulations Harm & Offense "2.1 Generally accepted standards must be applied to the contents of television and radio services so as to provide adequate protection for members of the public from the inclusion in such services of harmful and/or offensive material".
Media Representation though social concerns and the ways certain individuals, groups of people, place and issues are portrayed by the media, this can create, or exacerbate social problems. For example youths are represented as “yobs” and cause trouble to the older generation but this is just a stereotype and how it is sometimes shown in the media which can have a big effect on audiences by manipulating their opinion on a certain topic.
Your proposed short documentary about the No Means No date rape campaign to be shown to children at high school I think will violate the Ofcom broadcasting code, particularly protecting the under 18s and Harm and Offence sections. For example I think this video proposal will affect the high school children and Ofcom states under Protecting under 18s 1.1 "Material that might seriously impair the physical, mental or moral development of people under eighteen must not be broadcast." The topic of the video is very serious and may affect the children mentally, physically and is inappropriate. You also want interviews of teenage victims of rape which goes against the ofcom broadcasting code protecting under 18s "1.29 People under eighteen must not be caused unnecessary distress or anxiety by their involvement in programmes or by the broadcast of those programmes." The Ofcom regulation also states "1.8 Where statutory or other legal restrictions apply preventing personal identification, broadcasters should also be particularly careful not to provide clues which may lead to the identification of those who are not yet adults and who are, or might be, involved as victim, witness, defendant or other perpetrator in the case of sexual offences featured in criminal, civil or family court proceedings." This is a regulation you must be aware of when interviewing people under the age of 18 about rape.
The Obscene Publications Act 1959 is an act of Parliament that significantly reformed the law related to obscenity in England and Wales. To amend the law relating to obscene matter and to provide the protection of literature and to strengthen the law concerning pornography. I feel the use of re-enactments and Dramatizations will violate this act and be too obscene to the children viewers.
Looking at the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) Age rating classifications I think the short documentary you're proposing will be a 15 which is not suitable for school children. It would be a 15 as the documentary will have brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence. "There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence (for example descriptions of rape or sexual assault in a courtroom scene or in victim testimony) but any portrayal depiction of sexual violence must be discreet and justified by context."
Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind such as inventions, artistic work, images, music, words etc. This law enables people exclusive rights, to earn recognition and financial benefit from what they create. This means people wanting to use a creation which isn't theirs will have to get permission from the creator. Types of Intellectual Property include copyright, trademarks and patents. In your job description you said that you want "a popular music soundtrack that will appeal to the target audience". This has legal issues and falls into copyright law, you must take into account you cannot just use a popular soundtrack in your video which will be shown to the public without permission from the artist first to use the soundtrack. You also said the applicant will be up to the value of £20, "You will be recompensed up to the value of £20 for the production of the video". However this price will not pay for the cost of the video production and copyright issues as a popular music soundtrack will most likely cost much more than £20.
I hope you take all this into account and change your job advert carefully making it more suitable and appropriate and making sure it fits all the regulations before sending it out.
Yours Sincerely
Ed Shaw
