A heavy dose of reality came to the world of reality TV in France this week, as three contestants from top-rated show Temptation Island took the production company to court for infringing their employment rights, and won.
In a move which has already sent other shows’ contestents scrabbling for their lawyers, Anthony Brocheton, Marie Adamiak and Arno Laizé have been awarded €27,000 compensation for employment law abuses during the 12 day shoot.
Holiday pay of €817 and, given France’s 35 hour working week, overtime payments of €8,176 were added to €500 for unfair dismissal, €1,500 for wrongful termination and €16,000 for being employed on an illegal contract.
Mr Brocheton told how she was continually ordered around by the production company - effectively on call 24 hours a day: “They said it was not work. But for us it was hell.”
The court also affirmed that contestants would have other rights of employment, and France could see them going on strike if they feel particularly aggrieved about eating bugs or pretending to be a cat. Can an National Union of Reality Z-listers be far off?
Read more at the Times: French court finds TV sex frolics are labour not love
posted 07/03/2008
A British airline pilot has been sacked after footage of him performing a fly by at just 28 feet found it’s way onto popular internet video site YouTube. Read more…
posted 05/03/2008
A senior police officer has had a plum job offer withdrawn over his activities on social networking site Facebook. Inspector Chris Dreyfus of British Transport Police had been interviewed for the role of Chief Inspector at Bedfordshire Constabulary, but whilst checking references, his new employers found he’d previously been disciplined for posting details of his private life and sexuality on Facebook, and dropped him. Read more…
posted 28/02/2008
Here’s a quick roundup of what some of the blogosphere is saying about Work Your Proper Hours Day:
If you’re a blogger, try our quiz to work out your employer’s work/life balance style. Depending on whether you’re too embarrassed by the result, you can get a blog button to show off your results.
posted 20/02/2008
Have you ever found it hard to keep up a smile at work? If so, spare a thought for staff in the Japanese service sector, who since the 80’s have been trained to smile as much as possible throughout the day. The nation’s perma-grin is starting to take its toll on its workers, predominantly younger women. Suppressing their emotions all day means they find it hard to turn off the smile and manage emotions when they leave for the day, leading in severe cases to stress and depression. Leo Lewis has the story in The Times
posted 12/02/2008
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