Job advert response

Church Ln, Gorleston-on-Sea,

Great Yarmouth, Norfolk,

NR31 7BQ

09/07/2013

Dear Mr Cook,

My name is Connor Sartain and I am writing to you to point out many problems with the advertisement for your job placement these problems include many legal, ethical and contractual problems, an example of one of these problems is in your job description it is not very explicit being very vague on what your employer would have to do in a day the list you have supplied seems to much for one person to do in a day.

In general contracts must be explicit and have all of the fine details in your job description you mentioned about that if successful we must not apply for other positions of this nature this must be outlined in an exclusivity clause another clause that must be in the contract that must be is the confidentiality clause if you would want employers to be confidential and not talk about the job.

In multiple cases in the job advertisement you have broken the equality act of 2010, the first breach of this act is age discrimination according to the law you may not discriminate against a person’s age and as you have said in your advertisement that you must be over 30 this is against the law.

“A reference to an age group is a reference to a group of persons defined by reference to age, whether by reference to a particular age or to a range of ages.” - http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/5

Another case in which you break this act is religion and beliefs; you may not discriminate against someone’s beliefs or religion.

“A reference to a person who has a particular protected characteristic is a reference to a person of a particular religion or belief” - http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/10

Both of these cases are illegal and should be amended to avoid any complications.

Another Problem with this advertisement is within the application process you state that you want in the video popular music soundtracks this would imply that the applicant will be breaking Copy Right Laws and the given recompensed amount would not be enough to cover charges to use a song that is copy righted. As anyone applying would not be under the Employers’ liability or the employees’ rights we as applicants would be held accountable for any laws that would be broken when applying like copyrights as we would not be protected by employers’ liability until employed.

Another problem that would not be under the Employers’ liability is health and safety anything that an applicant would do that would jeopardise the cast or workers this could range from anything to an electric shock to broken equipment, the health and safety does not mean just physical health but can also extend to the mental wellbeing of the victims you want applicants to interview as rape is very traumatic. The applicant would not be covered by the employers’ liability and be held full accountable for any problems that occur during the recording. 

A way in which we as applicants can be protected is by joining a trade union, the job of a trade union is to represent staff, contract and freelance workers, they aim to protect jobs and improve pay and conditions of service. An example of a Trade union that I could join as an applicant for protection and advice is BECTU. - http://www.bectu.org.uk

You as an employer are responsible for drawing up policies, procedures and codes of practice. While not illegal they exist to protect the employer and consumer and will avoid any legal complications down the line so I believe you should pass down to applicants and employers these codes of practice as said before to avoid legal issues.

In the video proposal you also say that applicant should interview “female victims and male offenders” this invokes bad representation of the male population implying that they are all rapists, this can create social concerns, the media can easily influence their audience leading to public concern or rejection of certain groups of people in this case the male population.

In the Ofcom Broadcasting Code it states that you must protect the under 18s from material that is not suitable for their viewing.

“1.1 Material that might seriously impair the physical, mental or moral development of people under eighteen must not be broadcast.” – http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code-february2011/protecting-under-18s/

Showing “re-enactments” and “Dramatization” is certainly under this category of unsuitable material to show the under 18s which is the suggested audience for this documentary as they are still in high school.

Another part of the Ofcom broadcasting code is “Harm and Offence”

“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.” - http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code-february2011/harmoffence/

This is in conjunction with the previous code to protect the under 18’s and the over 18’s from material that would cause harm and offence to them, this includes material like: offensive language, violence, sex, sexual violence, humiliation, distress, violation of human dignity, discriminatory treatment or language (for example on the grounds of age, disability, gender, race, religion, beliefs and sexual orientation).

Your job advertisement goes against the code as I mentioned before you want the applicants to show re-enactments of the subject which is one of the materials that Ofcom says would cause harm and offence to the audience especially teenagers.

Another act that protects the audience from material that will offend them is the Obscene Publications Act 1959. This act makes it an offence to publish any material that would deprave or corrupt the audience this could include images of sexual activity such as rape. This is what you want the applicants to show in their video.

The content in the video would make the video an 18 under the BBFC age rating because of the sexual content in the video that you want the applicants to make. So the video would not be suitable to show in schools to under 18’s.

In your small print, as I mentioned before in this letter, you want the applicants to use popular soundtracks in the video, this in itself is not illegal but it is giving the implication that you are encouraging breaking the copyright law of intellectual property by only given applicants £20 recompense, this gives applicants three options either they use something that Is not copyrights and risk not getting the job or trying to find a popular song for the little sum that is given or just not worrying about copyright and using the copyright material which could lead to being arrested or fined for more than the recompense. Also this does not just include songs but also any logos, pictures and texts that are owned by others.



Yours sincerely,


Connor Edward Sartain