Legal requirements will need to be adhered to.To protect myself as a potential employer and the employees, I have looked at some of the processes.
Contractual obligations
The structure of many industries contractual agreement is
uniform regardless of the media involved in the job title. Primarily the
employees name and the business’ address should be printed at the very
beginning of a legitimate business’ documentation, this is most likely followed
by the terms and conditions of the employees job title and the
responsibilities. Furthermore the details of annual salary of collective
earnings (may include bonuses and royalties) and weekly working hours may be
covered.
Many employers give
the new members of staff a temporary position, so terms and conditions of a
probationary period (usually a 3 month period) are covered in detail, this will
also most likely feature details of contractual termination, upon failure to
achieve during that period mainly, as well as long term employment termination
issues covering disciplinary and grievance procedures. A minor misconduct will
usually be a written or verbal warning depending on the scale of the
misconduct, whereas a gross misconduct will be written warning, final written
warning, or even instant dismissal. These will also go onto the employees’
permanent record for a set period (usually 12 months).
Furthermore, the contract will detail of the legal rights of
the employee to have annual holiday pay (roughly 30 days including bank
holidays). Contractual obligations of maternity/paternity periods (up to 52
weeks which is split into obligatory maternity leave and additional maternity
leave) and payment will also be covered. Likewise the statutory sick pay will be
covered, this usually does not come into effect until 4 days of absents. Beyond
that the employee may be subject to internal investigation, this may have the
necessity for a doctor’s note if the employee is not able to work for a
prolonged period resulting in half/quarter pay over a set period.
In addition to these primary contractual agreements,
collective agreements may be covered. These can include superfitial details
such as hygiene and dress code within the office area, even rules concerning
food matter within the office. Other issues that are not legally required
within the document will be health and safety (even necessary training that may
be required), and the rules and regulations of the company. These may be
essential to a game production, such as terms of internet use within the
office, or use of social networking sites. Primarily this will tie in with the
‘none disclosure agreement’ in regards to the confidentiality of a working
project. Also this area of the document will cover copyright law, detailing
that all images and likeness’ are legally acquired, or original intellectual
property of the designer/company.
It is also possible that further financial details will be
covered within this part of the document. Should the company potentially have
its budget dropped significantly, details of pay reductions or redundancy may
be covered. Though rarely applicable within the games industry, information
regarding overtime and where necessary expenses may be written into the
contract. These can cover travel expenses, but usually there is a small amount
of petty cash, for household goods.
Finally the document will require the signature of the
employee and a counter signature on behalf of the company, and also potentially
the start date of the position. In some cases a witness is required when the signature
is given.
Relevant URLS
Contractual Obligations
Employment
Rights Act 1996 s.1 (Basic Particulars)
Requirements
of HoA and terms of employment (contract)
Paper
on HoA
About
IP and definitions within a contract
Working
time limits
Opt
out form
Holiday Entitlement
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