STRAND 3 | UNDERSTAND CONTRACTUAL, LEGAL AND ETHICAL OBLIGATIONS IN THE TELEVISION AND FILM INDUSTRIES
CONTRACTS
An employment contract is an agreement between you and your future employer. It establishes your employment rights, responsibilities and duties. These are called the ‘terms' of the contract. You should see our separate section on these.
Your contract doesn’t have to written down in order to take effect in law, but under British legislation, you are entitled to a document containing your employment terms within two months of starting work.
If your employer provides you with work, sets down the times for you to complete tasks, supplies tools and equipment, and also deals with financial matters (such as your tax and national insurance contributions) then you are being treated as an employee.
As a self-employed worker, you decide whether to accept work and how to perform it. You also make your own arrangements for holidays or sickness, pay your own tax and NI contributions. However, it is not always the case that someone described as a self-employed worker is actually self-employed. Do not take for granted either that carrying out tasks on your employer’s premises or at your employee’s home has any sway over the real legal status.
The deciding factor comes down to whether you are genuinely in business on your own account. A tribunal may need to determine this first, before moving on to whether there has been a breach of any employment contract.
EMPLOYMENT LEGISLATION
Health & Safety
All workers are entitled to work in environments where risks to their health and safety are properly controlled. Under health and safety law, the primary responsibility for this is down to employers.
All work activities are covered by health and safety laws. The Health and Safety Executive enforces a range of legislation, including;
Information can be provided in whatever form is most suitable, as long as it can be understood by everyone. Employers may need to make special arrangements for employees who do not understand English very well, who cannot read or who have a condition that means they need to be given information in different ways.
Equal Opportunities
CONTRACTS
An employment contract is an agreement between you and your future employer. It establishes your employment rights, responsibilities and duties. These are called the ‘terms' of the contract. You should see our separate section on these.
Your contract doesn’t have to written down in order to take effect in law, but under British legislation, you are entitled to a document containing your employment terms within two months of starting work.
If your employer provides you with work, sets down the times for you to complete tasks, supplies tools and equipment, and also deals with financial matters (such as your tax and national insurance contributions) then you are being treated as an employee.
As a self-employed worker, you decide whether to accept work and how to perform it. You also make your own arrangements for holidays or sickness, pay your own tax and NI contributions. However, it is not always the case that someone described as a self-employed worker is actually self-employed. Do not take for granted either that carrying out tasks on your employer’s premises or at your employee’s home has any sway over the real legal status.
The deciding factor comes down to whether you are genuinely in business on your own account. A tribunal may need to determine this first, before moving on to whether there has been a breach of any employment contract.
EMPLOYMENT LEGISLATION
Health & Safety
All workers are entitled to work in environments where risks to their health and safety are properly controlled. Under health and safety law, the primary responsibility for this is down to employers.
All work activities are covered by health and safety laws. The Health and Safety Executive enforces a range of legislation, including;
- The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. Regulations made under this act apply to all work situations, for example the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH) and the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations.
- Other laws that cover particular hazards, such as parts of the Food and Environmental Protection Act and the Control of Pesticides Regulations, both of which are about pesticides.
- Laws that cover health and safety in specific industries such as mining, nuclear, railway, explosives and offshore oil and gas;
- Older laws that predate the Health and safety at Work Act, and cover a range of industries, but not all workplaces, such as the Factories Act and regulations made under it. Most of these laws are gradually being modernised.
Information can be provided in whatever form is most suitable, as long as it can be understood by everyone. Employers may need to make special arrangements for employees who do not understand English very well, who cannot read or who have a condition that means they need to be given information in different ways.
Equal Opportunities
- whatever the size of your organisation
- whatever sector you work in
- whether you are taking on your first worker or your hundred and first
- whether or not you use any formal processes like application forms, short-listing or interviewing.
BBFC & OFCOM
Click to set custom HTML