The Legalities of Stuff (Equal Opportunities Act)

The Equal Opportunities Act stipulates that all people regardless of race, gender, age, religion, disabilities, sexuality and marital status should be treated the same. “2.1.1 Civil Service equal opportunities policy provides that all eligible people must have equality of opportunity for employment and advancement on the basis of their suitability for the work. There must be no unfair discrimination on the basis of age, disability, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, or (in Northern Ireland) community background.”

The Equal Opportunities Act also means that each workplace should have an Equal Opportunities policy to fully explain how they implement the act in not only employment, but also in the workplace itself.  This act is extremely important in the employment market because it aims to stop all forms of discrimination in the workplace. Discrimination can take many forms:

Direct Discrimination

• Occurs where someone is treated less favourably from others in the same circumstances due to a particular characteristic.
• An example would be a refusal to appoint someone to a particular post simply because of his or her sexual orientation.

Indirect Discrimination

• That means applying a provision, criterion or practice which although applied equally to everyone is such that a considerably smaller proportion of a particular group can comply with it and which cannot be justified.
• An example would be making a rule about dress or uniform which would disadvantage those from a certain racial or ethnic group and for which there was no justification.

Harassment

• Subjecting someone to harassment can amount to discrimination.
• Harassment is unwanted conduct that violates a person’s dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment having regard to all the circumstances and the perception of the victim.

Victimisation

• Occurs where an individual is treated less favourably than colleagues because he/she has taken action to assert their legal rights or have assisted a colleague in that regard.

Disability Discrimination

• Occurs if a disabled person is treated less favourably by their employer (or potential employer) because of a reason relating to their disability, without a justifiable reason.
• In addition, employers are required to make reasonable adjustments to working conditions or the workplace where that would help to accommodate a particular disabled person.

 

In my opinion, the equal opportunities act is a beautiful thing because it encourages all kinds of people to apply for whatever job they want to apply for and have an equal chance as anyone else to be the successful applicant. It allows people from all backgrounds to work in a job that they love and surely that could never be a negative thing.

 

http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/Jobs/~/media/Files/FreedomOfInformationDocuments/OurPoliciesAndProcedures/HRAndEmployment/011008_Equal_opportunities_policy.ashx

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/equality/lgbt_equality_toolkit/equal_opportunities_policies.cfm

The Legalities of Stuff (Copyright Laws)

For Work Based Learning I have been asked to explain the UK Copyright laws and how they protect my work. The current act is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Copyright law started off in the UK from a concept of common law; the Statute of Anne 1709. It became statutory with the passing of the Copyright Act 1911. The law gives creators of literature, drama, music, art work, audio recordings, broadcasts and films, rights to control the ways in which their material may be used.

The rights cover; broadcast, public performance, copying, adapting, issuing, renting and lending copies to the public. In many cases, the creators also have the right to be known as the author and to stamp out distortions of his/her work.

What isnt ok

It is an offence to perform any of the following acts without the consent of the owner:

• Copy the work.
• Rent, lend or issue copies of the work to the public.
• Perform, broadcast or show the work in public.
• Adapt the work.

The author of a work, or a director of a film may also have certain moral rights:

• The right to be identified as the author.
• Right to object to derogatory treatment.

What is ok

Fair dealing is a term used to describe acts which are permitted to a certain degree without infringing the work, these acts are:

• Private and research study purposes.
• Performance, copies or lending for educational purposes.
• Criticism and news reporting.
• Incidental inclusion.
• Copies and lending by librarians.
• Acts for the purposes of royal commissions, statutory enquiries, judicial proceedings and parliamentary purposes.
• Recording of broadcasts for the purposes of listening to or viewing at a more convenient time, this is known as time shifting.
• Producing a back up copy for personal use of a computer program.
• Playing sound recording for a non profit making organisation, club or society.

(Profit making organisations and individuals should obtain a license from PRS for Music.)

Above information sourced from

http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law

Kait x