Contractual, Legal and Ethical | Job Advertisement

To whom it may concern,

I am writing this letter to gather more information about your job position as an apprentice digital video production producer. I found your advertisement in the local newspaper, and I noticed some things that are unclear and incorrect. The job description is slightly unclear and confusing, the hours that are stated are between 10-45 hours per week which are variable depending on the work. But the salary is the confusing aspect, you have stated that the salary could be between £15000 - £35000, but you have not stated who will get what salary, or what work you will have to achieve to receive the higher salary, you have simply stated the job roles that will happen when working in the media industry. You have defined that the applicant must be aged below thirty, is there a reason for this? If so could this be clarified to give applicants knowledge of why they cannot apply. You have written that they must have religious views as a Christian, yet again Is there a reason for this if so could this be clarified. Contracts are a signed agreement between the employer and the employee and help both the employer and the employee know their role in the department. Contracts can be spoken or written agreements but in most jobs they are written as they can be used in a force of law. It’s very wise for an employee to know where they stand with their employer. This leads me to talk about confidentiality clauses, this is a non-disclosure agreement is a legal document between one or two employers, that disclose personally and confident matters about the employee that they do not wish to share with a third party.

The Equality Act is discrimination in the work industry, that is related to race, age, gender, sexuality and is illegal. As an employer your aim is to give an equal opportunity to all applicants that apply, but for your job position you have stated as I said above the age being below thirty, and their religious views being Christian, this may not be classed as discrimination but because you have not given a good reason why people may take offence. As an employer your job is to make codes of practice to state you are complying with the Equality Act (2010) this gives your applicants a better understanding when applying for a certain job role. This brings me on to talk about trade unions and protecting the employees. To be in a trade union you have to pay a yearly fee of £120 but it comes with its benefits when being protected in the working environment. During your job description you have stated they will be making a short documentary that can be shown to children at high school grade. This is okay but you then carry on to talk about they will be interviewing teenagers and other individuals who may or might have been affected by the topic of rape and including male offenders and female victims. To interview teenage female girls about a strong topic is dangerous when thinking about the Equality act and the employees’ rights.  For a young female teenager to have gone through such a strong topic will affect the teenager when bringing it back up, it could trigger physical and emotional struggles and could do them more harm than good. Not only have you asked them to interview young male and females, they are also not under your employment yet they are only applicants this could cause a big issue if something was to go wrong although it’s their responsibility, they are doing it to get your job, so the trade union would not benefit them due to not being and employer.

During the advertisement for the job you could have included some codes of conduct stating what they can and cannot do to protect themselves as they are not yet in employment. This will protect the applicant and also you the employer. This will protect the applicant and also you the employer. You the employer are responsible for writing up codes of conducts and policies and procedures that fit the job description and the environment they will be around. This will help later down the line if a legal issue was to come up.  How are you as an employer asking the applicant to portray the re-enactments between the female victim and the male offenders, the audience watching can easily be manipulated with the way one of the two are presented this could be through clothing of the victims, settings and even camera angles, it would be sensible to inform the applicant the way you would like the documentary to have an impact on the audience and what is their focus point during the short documentary. Also due to the age range of the female victims they will not be old enough to give the consent to film as they are under the age of 18, this could turn into a legal pursuit if not careful. A good example of representation is Amy Winehouse she was known as a beautiful young singer, but after her drug addiction the papers and other articles changed their views making the audience think differently about Amy Winehouse, she later passed away and the newspapers and articles changed their opinions giving her a good send off, this is almost confusing to see due to what they previously said about her it’s almost like they are apologising for what they previously said. After representing someone it can have an impact on the audience, this will cause social concerns, for example you have stated female victims that have been associated with the topic of rape, this could give the audience a social concern that young females are dressing to attract male offenders. Or that all males can have or will have been associated with the topic you have chosen. Different scenarios will be changed through the public’s eye, but attempting to organise it more clearly so the applicant has a broader idea of how to represent will help.

Ofcom is a broadcasting code that is required by The Communications Act (2003) and the Broadcasting Act (1990) which they draw up a code that they then will enforce. Ofcom stands for The office of Communications which is a government approved regulator. They particularly protect under 18’s and harm and offence. Ofcom exists because of the Communications Act and the Broadcasting Act. Protecting under 18s in section 1 issue 5 of the Ofcom broadcasting code, rule 1.8 and 1.9 state the coverage of sexual and other offences in the UK involving under-eighteens. This area is focused on programme makers that may wish to take legal advice when showing a certain topic that may be harming to watch for someone under the age of eighteen or for a viewer who has a child that is under the age of eighteen. This comes under the Criminal Evidence Act (1999) This is where you should include your codes of conduct stating what the applicant can and cannot do relating to protecting the under eighteens that they are interviewing and doing re-enactment with. Section two of the Ofcom code informs employers and employees the code for harm and offence and the generally standards when working. It includes different context meanings that may be deemed as harmful or offensive. This topic could also relate to your job advertisement in the way female victims are portrayed in the re-enactments will they be harmed during the process to show the audience how this topic occurs and in anyway will they be taken offensive so it makes the audience create a social concern about the topic and to female victims and male offenders. This brings me on to mention the Obscene Publications Act (1959) this is an act that is to protect the publication and to provide protection and strengthen the law when concerning pornography. This relates extremely well with your job advertisement, when you have informed the applicant to make re-enactments of the topic will this include nudity or scenes of a sexual nature, due to the age of your victims you will not be able to include nudity or scenes of a sexual nature as this would be taken further when protecting under-eighteens and the harm and offence this may occur if they are stuck in that situation.  BBFC is the British Board of Film Classification to let the audience know the rating for films, and video games. This will help the audience know if their younger children are suitable for watching it. In your advertisement you have not included what rating you will be giving, this could cause some confusion if the title of your production is aimed to young teenagers but your content inside is completely the opposite. If the content is hard to watch and could contain disturbing footage that will need to be stated in your advertisement.  The last point that I would like to make is the Intellectual Property(IP) and copyright, Intellectual Property, could be a brand, invention, a song, or even a design. This fits in with copyright and the use of YouTube and illegal video downloads. Copyright is against law if you do not have the rights to use something that is not yours, this could be written, theatrical, musical, films, book layouts, sound recordings and finally broadcasting, you can buy the rights for certain products if you wish but without the rights you are committing a crime. In the very last section of your advert you ask the applicant to make a short documentary on the topic of no date rape campaign where they have been asked interview young female victims and male offenses, after that you want the track to have a popular sound track, although you have not stated what sound track nor have you stated that you have the rights but you have mentioned that you will be giving a budget of £20 this will not cover the copyright fee to purchase the rights to a song so you will be breaking the law as you will not be able to get a songwriters permission.
Yours sincerely,
Z. L. Griffen

Zara Louise Griffen

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