The document discusses several topics related to employment legislation and employee rights at the BBC: - Health and safety policies at the BBC focus on accident reporting, contractors, environmental policies, and more. Fire safety is especially important given the work environment. Employees must be trained on safety procedures. - The BBC aims for equal opportunities and treatment of all people, including those with disabilities. However, some disabled employees still report limited career prospects and progression. The BBC is taking action to address this. - Age discrimination laws prohibit employers like the BBC from unreasonably discriminating based on age in hiring or employment. This provides more job opportunities. - The BBC must also follow rules on minimum wage, discrimination, working

1. 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_procedur
es/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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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-intellectualproperty-rights/
http://theomnibus.wordpress.com/2007/10/29/what-are-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-ofintellectual-property-in-the-digital-age/