Stefan Constantinou Unit 8 Assignment 3B

Employment legislation and Employee rights

Health and Safety

The BBC has many health and safety regulations, the main categories are ‘Accident/Incident reporting’, ‘Contractors in productions’, ‘Environmental policy’, ‘Freelancers’, ‘Health and safety guidelines for BBC staff around the world’, ‘Risk assessment’, ‘Security policy’ and ‘Smoke free policy’.

The most important one is Health and Safety because it regulates the safety actions that take place if worst comes to worst. Fire and Emergency Evacuation is one of the main headings of the health and safety policy, my understanding of it is that it is necessary to have this because of the environment having to maintain a safe atmosphere. These are taught to the employees so they can prepare for the event if it happens. This is mandatory and compulsory to know for the business to exist. The manager will instruct you on your first day of what you should know in the case. The manager will supply any information or queries for the employee, as it’s their job. If you’re working in this industry, the information and regulations supplied to look at will help when the situation is happening and allows you to feel more comfortable in your workspace.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/foi/publication_scheme/classes/policies_procedures/health_safety.shtml

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/foi/classes/policies_procedures/health_safety_guidelines_bbc_staff.pdf

Equal opportunities

The BBC aims to be the most creative organisation in the world by their content intentionally speaking to all audiences. The BBC also treats everyone the same, including people with disabilities. They were observed through questionnaires asking about how they receive engagement in the work place and how they’re treated. The deep analysis is necessary because it ensures the public and company know that disabled people get the same treatment and respect as everyone in the business. However, some disabled people still found serious concern with this because the issue raised was a perception of limited prospects and limited career progression. The BBC claim they will be taking immediate action this year to ensure this problem no longer exists and is associated with the BBC. The BBC is serious about this as they have many pages full of simplifying and breaking down every factor for company to not be one sided.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/diversity/strategy/equalityreport2012/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/diversity/disability/guide.html

Stefan Constantinou Unit 8 Assignment 3B

Age Employment Regulations

The Employment Equality (Age) regulation 2006 is an employment legislation in the TV and film industries. This legislation prohibits employers unreasonably discriminating, harassing or victimising job applicants, employees or trainees against their age. It came into action on the 1st of October 2006 and the BBC state that there are benefits to this. They also added that staff has a right to work until the age of 65, however the pension scheme ends at 60 because of the formal payout age ending. This is a useful law as it provides more jobs for people as age is no longer a factor as to why someone can get a job, it is down to their skills and if the company want you. However, if the company don’t want you they’re obligated to give you a reason to avoid any assumed discrimination.

Employer’s liability

The BBC has a section on the things they have to cover in case if something doesn’t go to plan. This is a successful system as the insurance is an essential part of the filmmaking. Employer’s liability ensures to provide cover from theft or losing respect of your legal liability to pay compensation for disease, death or a bodily injury to an employee. This would only happen during the course of their employment at BBC and they would ensure they are fully covered for all these issues.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/filmmaking/guide/production/insurance

Employee’s rights

The BBC, and many other companies, must follow a small number of rules to ensure employees are satisfied and the business stays fair to everyone. The employee rights specify that workers are guaranteed a minimum hourly wage of £5.80 per hour, race, age, sex or disability discrimination is illegal as all workers must be treated the same and opportunities must be equal. The EU Working Time Directive sets a limit on the number of hours staff can work in one week, this includes a minimum and maximum so the company can flow functionally. Parents are entitled to paid leave from work soon after their children are born, this falls under the maternity and paternity leave area. Another section is the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, this is a piece of basic legislation covering occupational health and safety in the UK to ensure that employees know they’re safe and can work comfortably. Things to empower this law in the workplace involve displaying a health and safety poster and carrying out a risk assessment to identify workplace risks, and then sensibly correct the areas in the workplace. However, another rule in protecting staff at the BBC is redundancy; this is when employees can potentially lose their job if the business suffers a fall in sales. This is important as the BBC may need to do so because of falling sales requiring less staff turnover and posts not being required anymore, as well as low revenue. To make the process fair of who has to leave if the time comes is down to ‘last-in-first-out’. This is a good way the BBC remove employees during redundancy because the people who have been working there the longest deserve to stay. If an employee is let go they receive compensation according to their number of years with the firm as it is so sudden to have to leave the job and having no money would be stressful.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/business/people/interviewrev2.shtml

Stefan Constantinou Unit 8 Assignment 3B

Trade Unions

An example of a trade union that relates to the television industry is BECTU. BETCU is the UK’s media and entertainment trade union, the union represents staff, contract and freelance workers who are based primarily in the United Kingdom. The key aims of the union are to protect jobs, win new recognition agreements, improve pay and conditions of service (including pension), and increase membership. BECTU is a democratic organisation run by representatives elected amongst its membership; this involves different branches sending representatives to the policy making annual conference.

Trade unions have many advantages; some of these are increased wages for its members. Industries with trade unions typically have higher wages than an industry without a union. Another is representing workers; this means trade unions protect workers from exploitation and help to uphold health and safety legislations. Another is the service sector being important, this means that part time and temporary staff/employees are protected in the types of jobs in the sector, such as maid.

Trade unions are important for many reasons; some of these are relevant to the communication between management and workers. This provides the support necessary to ensure the differences of opinion don’t turn into major conflicts. The main function of a trade union is to represent people at work, this is important so everyone feels they have an equal opportunity and no one is discriminated against. The trade union also play an important educational role and organizing courses for their members on a wide range of matters. It is the union’s priority and job to ensure a healthy and safe working environment.

https://www.bectu.org.uk/about

http://econ.economicshelp.org/2007/04/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-trades.html

http://industrialrelations.naukrihub.com/importance-of-trade-unions.html

Intellectual property

Intellectual property is an untouchable property that is the result of inventiveness. For example, copyrights, patents and trademarks. A trademark is a symbol or word/words legally registered or established by use as representing a company or product. Copyright is the exclusive legal right, given to the creator for a fixed number of years, to print, publish, perform or film.

All three terms have advantages that benefit a greater outcome, the use of each of them is important to the industry. An advantage of intellectual property protection is that everyone who had played a part in creating something that is in the mind makes some sort of profit. An advantage of trademark would be legally preventing other people from taking advantage of customer goods as the business will be under the name of the creator’s choice. An advantage of copyrights would be there not being official registration or documents required. The copyright comes into effect immediately and it is free to mark something as copyright.

An example of intellectual property would be MPAA. Due to illegal file sharing, the Motion Picture Association of America claims that $2.3 billion was lost in the US alone from pirates. However, this is controversial because it may be partly untrue because giving away intellectual property such as

Stefan Constantinou Unit 8 Assignment 3B

movies can sometimes mean more profit for the seller. Another example is intellectual property protecting creators of music, it is sometimes untrue due to the way the music industry works, the recording industry chooses who they want to sign and this means that unfavourable contracts which gives property rights to the recording company so they can record a balance sheet of all expenditure. An example of a trademark is WHSmith, this is because it’s a company that was named and developed from its primary stage. It then became famous and very popular because the logo itself doesn’t describe the goods or services they offer which make them a good example of a registered trademark. An example of copyright is literally any piece of creditable work that can be protected by copyright, such as a song, recording or a textbook. It would be used when possibly starting up a television broadcasting company and deciding the name and making sure the name is secured in your possession.

http://safehiring.wordpress.com/2013/03/16/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-intellectual-property-rights/

http://theomnibus.wordpress.com/2007/10/29/what-are-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-intellectual-property-in-the-digital-age/