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LLW2601 Assignment 2 Semester 1 Memo | Due 25 April 2025. All questions fully answered. QUESTION 1 READ THE SCENARIO BELOW CAREFULLY AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS THAT FOLLOW Ms Goolam works for the Ministry of Tertiary Education (MTE). Ms Goolam is highly qualified with an MA in Sociology from the elite Oxlade University. Her designation is “Senior Executive Research Specialist” and her annual salary is just over 2.8 million. She conducts research and writes reports for the MHE about trends and conduct within higher education institutions (HEIs). The reports are submitted to the House Committee on Tertiary Education (HCTE). Ms Goolam submits a report entitled “Justified by a Shortage of Skills: The Over-Representation of Foreign Academic Employees at the Free Lands University (FLU)”. During a live broadcast of the HCTE proceedings, a HCTE member, Mr Lampert asks the Minister about the sources cited in the report. Mr Lampert explains that the report lists and cites a total of eleven publications about critical skills shortages within the country’s HEIs but the sources themselves do not exist. Mr Lampert questions the Minister if the report was drafted with the assistance of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). The Minister states that the Senior Executive Research Specialist drafted the report. He further explains that the MTE workplace rules prohibit the use of unapproved tools to perform work-related tasks. AI is one such unapproved tool. However, The Minister is unable to confirm if the report was drafted using GenAI. He promises that the MTE will conduct an investigation into the matter and report on the outcome. Following the investigation which involved forensics linguists and digital forensics specialists, the resultant Investigation Report establishes that the Ms Goolam’s report was partially (about 35%) generated using GenAI. Although Ms Goolam substantially edited the language, “the essence of the report was largely baseless information made up by GenAI”. The core claims about skills shortages within HEIs were accordingly generated by GenAI, including the fictional sources. In her defence, Ms Goolam claimed during the investigation that she was experiencing depression and bullying and had not received support from the MTE. She also alleged that she is expected to work 47 hours per week and that this was “just too much work and doubtlessly unlawful”. However, there is no record (whether in the form of emails, phone calls, surveillance footage etc) of Ms Goolam approaching the internal Employee Relations within the MTE about her depression or the alleged bullying. Furthermore, all executive-level staff within the Department are contractually obligated to a minimum of work 47 hours per week, which is said to be commensurate with their responsibilities and salaries. The Investigation Report (IR) and all associated documents are submitted to the HCTE. YOU are the legal practitioner appointed by the MTE to advise on legal matters within the Department and to represent the department before the HCTE on legal matters. You therefore are attending the HCTE Proceedings on behalf of the MTE. ANSWER THE QUESTIONS FROM THE HCTE MEMBERS BELOW: 1.1 Mr Lampert: “Counsel, can you please explain to me what the employment law consequence of Ms Goolam’s use of GenAI to draft the report is? (4) 2. HCTE Chairman: “Counsel, I can see that in one of the annexures to the IR, Ms Goolam suggests her resort to GenAI was because of the allegedly unreasonable working hours which she claims violate the law. Kindly tell me what law and legal provision(s) regulate working hours and explain if Ms Goolam’s claim is correct in terms of that law?” (4) 3. HCTE Deputy Chairwoman: “I am concerned, Counsel, that Ms Goolam claims to have experienced depression and bullying but the MTE did not address the issue. What does the law say about this issue, and can the MTE be found liable for this alleged failure?” (12) TOTAL MARKS: 20 MARKS
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