East Norfolk
Gorleston
NR31 7BQ
To whom it may concern,
I am writing this letter today concerning the legal and ethical issues with your job advertisement for an Apprentice Digital Video Producer. I personally cannot believe the total disregard for discrimination against gender, age and religious backgrounds. In 2010 'The Equality Act' was constructed to protect companies like you being able to discriminate against certain people and you've completely infringed upon it.
The Equality Act of 2010 was put into place to stop discrimination against people of a certain gender, age, sexual orientation or religion. This replaced multiple acts put in place through recent decades however your job advertisement breaks this in multiple areas. You have it listed as your only looking for either male or female workers, however you don't mention any of the other genders? I'll have you know the meaning of 'gender' has changed, there are now more genders then the standard two, all of which you have discriminated against. Next on the list you say your looking for someone aged below 30. It is ILLEGAL to deny a person an opportunity to a job when they are still perfectly able to do it as well as anyone else.You then list you require the person to have Christian religious views. This yet another law your are breaking asking to have specific religious views as a requirement for the job.
I also believe the proposed video required with the application is on a very extreme subject that could be a sensitive topic for people wanting to apply. Being an apprenticeship I would assume the majority of applicants will be young people. I think to ask a student to go out and find rape victims/rape offenders for a real interview is a lot to be asking an inexperienced first time applicant. I wanted to point out the issue of your total lack of regard for social concern in the video guidelines as well. Whilst the majority of sexual violence is men attacking women, there is also a significant portion of sexual violence that is not recognized as commonly in today's culture/society, ie. women attacking men, women attacking women etc. However in the application you mention explicitly you want us to find 'female' victims and 'male' offenders. This is just straight up stereotyping and is unacceptable. Also if anything was then to go wrong in the process of making these films we are obviously not protected by any sorts of employers liabilities or employers rights so we are ultimately putting ourselves at risk. In the health and safety legislation, with the right parameters set up, providing you've produced the right risk assessment paper work if anything was to go wrong your company is covered and prepared for it. However as an independent content creator if I was to conduct interviews as the applications asks I would have no cover or insurance if anything bad was to happen. There are no trade unions in independent content creations to protect myself or anyone that has been hired.
Another thing I noticed is there is no codes of practice or policies & procedures listed on the job application. Considering just having basic codes of practice could potentially avoid many legal issues in the future, it just seems unprofessional to have none of the such listed. It would also go along way to making us as an applicant feel a lot more secure and certain of where we stand.
Concerning legal issues I wanted to relate specifically with the Ofcom broadcasting code. Making the video would be tricky to keep within the Ofcom broadcasting code particularly due to the 'protecting under 18's' and 'harm and offense acts'. If it was to air on TV before the watershed, the kind of scene able to be depicted would be very restricted which would make getting across a certain message a lot harder. The code states and I quote "Due care must be taken over the physical and emotional welfare and the dignity of people under eighteen who take part or are otherwise involved in programs. This is irrespective of any consent given by the participant or by a parent, guardian or other person over the age of eighteen in loco parentis". It then also says "People under eighteen must not be caused unnecessary distress or anxiety by their involvement in programs or by the broadcast of those programs. Ofcom exist because of the Communications Act (2003) and The Broadcasting Act (1990).
The Obscene Publications Act (1959) significantly reformed the law related to obscenity by creating a new offence for publishing obscene material and repealing the common law offence of obscene libel which was previously used.
If it was to be released in the cinema I think this would be given 15 certificate rating. This is because is because in its official guidelines it says and I quote "Sexual activity may be portrayed, but usually without strong detail. There may be verbal references to sexual behavior, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context." It then goes on to say under the violence section "There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but the depiction of sexual violence must be discreet and justified by context" which is exactly what we would go for. So I think 15 would be an appropriate and suitable rating for the video considering its going to need to be seen by younger people.
I noted at the end of the letter in small print you state you will recompense £20 for the production of the video. This however enters the grey area though of intellectual property because your suggesting you will then be able to do what you like with the video even if you choose not to employ the applicant. This is a cheap way of getting round copyright laws and you are collecting work that is not yours by right. Please take into consideration all the things I have mentioned.
Yours sincerely,
Joe Church
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