Reply letter for apprentice

To whom it may concern,                                                                                    17/06/2015

 I’m writing to you about your recent advertisement for the Apprentice Digital Video Production Producer, there are many things wrong with this advertisement that are against certain legal acts and I want to highlight them for you. Contracts are legal agreements that relate to your own terms of employment, in the advertisement you talk say that if you are successful, “you must not apply for other positions of this nature”. If a candidate is successful they should expect an exclusivity clause.

 The Equality Act (2010) is an Act that was created to cover many different Acts that effect Discrimination on grounds of race, gender and age in the work place, the Acts that it consist of range from the Equal Pay Act (1970) to the Race Relations Act (1976). Equal Opportunities employers recruit fairly. They produce codes of practice to comply with the Equality Act. In your advertisement you are looking for a male or female “ages below 30” which is against the Employment Equality (Age) regulations (2006) and you state that the candidate has got to be of “Christian” faith, which is against the Employment Equality (Religion and Belief) Regulations (2003). Employers’ liability insurance that helps cover compensation if an employee is injured or becomes ill because of the work they do. Employment rights cover a vast number of things such as protection against unfair dismissal, the right to request flexible working and time off for emergencies. There are also Trade Unions that protect you and stand with you if something was to happen in the work place. As a candidate you would not be covered by these Rights and the Trade Unions, So what if something was to happen? With the short documentary that you are asking the candidate to make something could happen, for example you are interviewing a victim that has Post Dramatic Stress Disorder and they become iritic and cause damage to someone or something you have no rights covering you and you would be left alone to deal with such a matter.

 Codes of practise are not part of the law, but they exist to protect the citizen and play a predominant role in TV and film. As a candidate they do not affect them, but they should be made well aware of your codes of practise and policies and procedures. The way that certain people, groups and places see your short documentary may cause some problems, well both know that the media can be problematic and with the topic of rape it would be seen upon as wrong to some people. The media representation can create or exacerbate social problems and concerns, how would you protect your candidate from these people and the media?

 There are some legal issues that effects your candidates production, Ofcom are in charge of regulating all media, here is a reference under the Section one: protecting the under 18’s “1.1 Material that might seriously impair the physical, mental or moral development of people under eighteen must not be broadcast.”. Because you want to show this documentary to “children at high school” and it is such a touchy subject, there is a small probability you would be able to show it. Her is a reference from section 2 “2.4 Programmes must not include material (whether in individual programmes or in programmes taken together) which, taking into account the context, condones or glamorizes violent, dangerous or seriously antisocial behavior and is likely to encourage others to copy such behavior.)” you say that you want the candidate to create re-enactments, this would strongly go against this code and could cause others to copy such behavior.

 It is a criminal offence to publish any content that effect will "deprave and corrupt" those that read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it. This covers images of extreme sexual activity such as bestiality, necrophilia, rape or torture. Again you are asking the candidate to create “re-enactments” depending on how graphic these images are will decide whether it’s committing a criminal offence. This documentary is would need to be a PG certification because of the age of the high school children, but because you want the candidate to make such adult content it would be given an 18 certification and would not be allowed to be shown in schools.

 Last but not least on the terms of Intellectual property, you would not be able to use a “popular music soundtrack” because it would be copyright and your company and the candidate will be committing a criminal offence. I hope this letter helps you learn a few things and that your next job advertisement is one of a higher standard.