Legal Obligations Report

Contractual
Types of contract
When looking at the different types of contracts that exist for workers they are usually
broken down into five different sections.
The first section includes full-time and part-time contracts. When you have one of these you
either are a full-time worker, where you work 5 days a week and it is a full-time
commitment, or a part-time worker, where you work only a few days a week and it is not a
full-time commitment. When you are covered by one of these contracts the employer must
give the employee a written statement of employment. This is their contract and it gives
details on things such as working hours, amount of pay, holidays and other things that
people need to know when they are getting into a job. When you work under one of these
contracts you receive all of the basic workers rights including the minimum number of paid
holidays and at least the minimum number of breaks throughout each day.
The second section is made up of fixed-term
contracts. These contracts are ones that only
last for a certain amount of time and the time
that they span for is decided in advance of the
person taking the job. These contracts end
when the task that the person was being hired
to is complete or when an event that would
make the worker redundant takes place. When
people with this type of contract are working they should be treated by the employer in the
same way as the people with full-time or part-time contracts.
The third section is agency staff. This is where as an employer you would hire some
temporary staff through an agency. This is often done when a gap opens in a company and
the employer needs to fill it whilst they look for someone to fill the position full-time. If one
person from an agency has been hired at the same
place for 12 weeks or more then they become
entitles to the same treatment as people with
permanent contracts. As an employer you are not
required to make sure that workers get their rights
under working time regulations as that job goes to
the agency that they were hired from. You also
don’t have to pay the person directly, instead you
pay the agency and then they deal with the
distribution of the money depending on the contract that the person has with them.
The fourth section includes freelance workers, consultants and contractors. These people
are often self-employed, or they may work for another company that you would pay for
their services. When you hire these people, you will more
than likely not have to deal with the tac and national
insurance contributions because they will do this
themselves. These people may also not be entitled to all of
the same rights as the full-time employers, but their health
and safety is something that you do need to be responsible
for.
The final section is the people that are working on a zero hours contract. People with this
kind of contract are on call to work when you need them and are only paid for the work that
they do. This means that as the employer you are not
required to give them work and as the employee you
don’t have to work when the employer asks you to.
People with this kind of contract are entitled to the
“statutory annual leave” and also the “National
Minimum Wage” in the same way as the people with
regular contract and there is nothing that you can do to
stop them from getting a job elsewhere.

Non-Disclosure Agreements
A non-disclosure agreement is defined as “a legal contract between at least two parties that
outlines the confidential material, knowledge or information that the parties wish to share
with one another for certain purposes but wish to restrict access to or by third parties.” This
means that two separate groups would have information that they have decided that they
only want to share with one another and therefore
they make the people that they tell sign an
agreement making it illegal for them to share the
information with anyone that isn’t included in the
agreement. The two most common types of non-
disclosure agreements are doctor-patient
confidentiality, which is where the doctor signs an
agreement saying that they will not discuss the
information that you give them with anyone other than those that are included in the
agreement, and also attorney-client privilege, which is where a lawyer or solicitor can’t
disclose any information that has been given to them by the employer with anyone not
included in the agreement. For both of these agreements they cannot be broken even in
court as they can’t talk about the information.

Time Management
Time management is defined as “the process of organising and planning how to divide your
time between specific activities. Good time management enables you to work smarter – not
harder – so that you get more done in less time, even when time is tight, and pressures are
high. Failing to manage your time damages your effectiveness and causes stress.” This
means that time management is where you plan out the work that you are going to do
before you start doing it to make sure that you leave yourself enough
time to get everything done to the same standard. Doing this helps to
avoid stress because it enables you to know exactly what needs to be
done when and ensures that you aren’t missing anything out. It also
helps you to mentally prepare for what you are going to have to do so
you are not surprised if there is a lot of work to do and not a lot of time
to do it in.

Risk Management
Risk management is defined as “the identification, evaluation and prioritization of risks
followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor and
control the probability or impact of unfortunate
events.” This means that risk management is
where, before you start a task, you look at the
potential things that could go wrong with it and
make sure that you have dedicated enough time
and resources to preventing the problems from
ever happening or leaving enough time and
resources to deal with any unforeseen problems
when and where they happen within the project.
Doing this is very important because it helps to
prevent the risks that, if unaccounted for, could
destroy the project completely or make the time
constraints on the project inconceivable where they would have been achievable.

Regulatory Issues
Freedom of information
The freedom of information act 2000 is defined
as “an act of parliament of the parliament of
the United Kingdom that creates a public right
of access to information held by public
authorities.” This means that the public
authorities in the United Kingdom are obliged
by law to release certain information about
their activities and members of the public are
allowed to request that the public authorities
give them some information. The main purpose
of this act is to give the public information about the actions of public organisations unless
there is a legal reason as to why they shouldn’t know. This is sometimes described as
“presumption or assumption in favour of disclosure.”
Censorship
Censorship is defined as “ten suppressions of speech, public communication or other
information, on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive,
politically incorrect or ‘inconvenient’ as
determined by government authorities or by
community consensus.” This means that it is when
the government or community decide that
something someone has said or created is a bad
thing that people shouldn’t be subjected to and it
is then made so that people are prevented from
seeing it. The most common examples of
censorship come on television. Before the
watershed, where the censorship is relaxed, things
such as swearing, and nudity are either not included or removed from the content is being
shown to protect the audiences from the content. This is called soft censorship where the
audiences are protected from certain aspects of content that contain things that are
deemed to be unacceptable.

Copyright Law

Intellectual property
Intellectual property is defined as “a category of property that includes intangible creations
of the human intellect, and primarily encompasses copyrights, patents and trademarks. It
also includes other types of rights including trade secrets, publicity rights, moral rights and
rights against unfair competition.” This means
that intellectual property is the right to own the
things that you create. An idea on its own is not
classed as intellectual property because it is
technically something that anyone could come
up with inside their own head and there is no
proof of originality but if you then make that
idea a reality and no-one has done it before it
becomes your intellectual property and you
own it. You can gain something as your own
intellectual property by coming up with the idea yourself and making it a reality, buying the
rights to someone else’s intellectual property therefore making it your own or if you have a
brand that could be a trade mark.

Office of Communications (Ofcom)

Advertising Standards agency (ASA)
Professional Bodies
British Interactive Multimedia Association (BIMA)
The British Interactive Multimedia Association’s purpose is stated as “to represent the
interactive media and digital content sector in the UK. Its core objectives are to promote the
British digital industry, share knowledge and best practice, recognise excellence and support
the next generation of digital professionals. Nationally, BIMA acts as a liaison with academia
and the government, acting as a
united voice for its members and
aiming to drive commercial growth in
the sector. Globally it champions the
UK's digital industry to foster an
internationally competitive industry.”
This means that the purpose of this
association is to promote the up and coming media professionals and make sure that they
are given the support that they need with advertising to rival other companies. By doing this
BIMA is able to support the growth of the digital media sector as it promotes competition
therefore increasing the amount of effort put in by the creators and as a result of this
increase the amount of content that they release.

Professional body codes of practice

Depending on the different types of professional body that someone works for they would
be required to follow a different code of practice that has been set by an authoritative body.
The one thing that remains constant is the fact that there will be a code to follow to make
sure that everyone with the job in that field is doing what they are supposed to. The
definition of a code of practice is “a set of written rules which explains how people working
in a particular profession should behave.” This just means that the codes of practice
document the activities that people in certain professions are prohibited from partaking in.
An example of this would be someone working as an auctioneer. If they were to follow the
codes of practice that are set to their profession, then they would not be able to deal in
stolen goods.
The British Interactive Multimedia Association that is mentioned above also has their own
code of practice that everyone who works for them is contractually obliged to follow and
the result of a violation of these codes would be termination from the organisation. Some of
the main things that people working for BIMA are not allowed to do because of the code of
practice include:
Being disrespectful towards that company’s partners, taking bribes and facilitation
payments, giving and receiving gifts with business deals, giving inaccurate financial reports
on jobs and conducting political activities targeting teammates.

Ethical
Policies and procedures
Policies and procedures are defined as something that is “designed to influence and
determine all major decisions and actions, and all
activities take place within the boundaries set by
then. Procedures are the specific methods employed
to express policies in action in day-to-day operations
of the organisation.” This means that no matter
which organisation you work for there will be
policies and procedures in place to make sure that
everything within the business runs up to the
standards set by them. As it says above the policies are a list of ethical rules that are put in
place similar to the aforementioned codes of practice the document the actions that are
acceptable and unacceptable to do within a business. The procedures are the actions that
are taken to make sure that whatever is done within the organisation fits with the policies
that have been set.

Ethical Requirements
Representation of Gender
Representation of Religious Beliefs
Cultural issues and language
As a company it is a very positive thing to do to diversify the workforce with employees of
different cultures because it allows access to certain benefits such as a greater acceptance
into the global marketplace and also a wider range of views on certain topics as people’s
opinions are often influenced by their past experiences and the teachings that they have
been subjected to.
However, by introducing new cultures and languages into the workforce of your company
you may create barriers between the workers that would need to be overcome in order to
work as efficiently as possible.
The first barrier that would likely be created is the barrier
with communication. This could arise if the person that you
have hired is not fluent in the language that is primarily
used on the workplace. This could result in a lack of
communication between them and colleagues that would
result in a lessened efficiency. The barrier may also affect
the communications with the customer which could be
detrimental to customer perceptions and wellbeing. This is
something that should be taken into account when hiring a diverse workforce as it is not
worth making a disadvantageous change to the business just for the sake of forcing
diversity.
The second barrier would be any resistance shown against the diversification from the pre-
existing work force. Again, this is something that needs to be considered when making the
change but is not as important because the other employees should change their views and
be accepting. If hostility is continued to be shown, then the people responsible should have
action taken against them.