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Rules for job ads

Help and rules

Version 1.0, last updated 5 Nov 2026

Part 1. Rules shown to employers

Before you post a job on The Bench

  1. Only employers post. Recruitment agencies, employment businesses and job-matching services cannot.
  2. We check your business first, and a person reads your first ad.
  3. Show the pay: an amount or a range, per hour, day or year. For a salary, say the weekly hours. "Competitive" and "depending on experience" are not accepted on their own.
  4. The pay must be at or above the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage (Part 2).
  5. No unpaid roles, except school work experience, college or university placements that are part of a course, and volunteering for a charity, voluntary organisation or public body. Label them plainly.
  6. Never ask an applicant to pay anything: kit, training, checks, uniforms or a "refundable" deposit.
  7. People apply to you by your own email address or web form. Not by WhatsApp, Telegram or text message alone.
  8. Never ask for bank, passport or National Insurance details with an application. Do your right-to-work checks yourself, at the right time.
  9. Keep discrimination out of the words (Part 3). If a genuine occupational requirement limits the job to one group, say what it is and why.
  10. Your ad closes on its closing date or after 30 days. You can edit, renew or close it, or mark it filled, at any time.
  11. You confirm the lawful-ad statement (terms, Appendix A) every time you post. It is a criminal offence to make it knowing it is false, or not caring whether it is true.
  12. Every ad carries "You never pay to apply" and a Report button. We hide an ad that has been reported while we look at it.

What every ad must contain: your business's name as checked; the kind of work (from the list: setter, bench jeweller, polisher, CAD and 3D printing, caster, engraver, designer, shop and sales, valuer, workshop manager, apprentice, freelance); the place, with a postcode; the pay; permanent or fixed term; the hours; the skills and software asked for; the experience asked for; the start and closing dates; and how to apply (your email address or web form).

Part 2. Pay

Rates from 1 April 2026:

  • 21 and over (National Living Wage)
    • Hourly rate: GBP 12.71
  • 18 to 20
    • Hourly rate: GBP 10.85
  • Under 18
    • Hourly rate: GBP 8.00
  • Apprentice (under 19, or 19 and over in the first year)
    • Hourly rate: GBP 8.00

Illustration only (arithmetic, a 40-hour week, 52 weeks): GBP 12.71 an hour is GBP 26,436.80 a year; GBP 10.85 is GBP 22,568.00; GBP 8.00 is GBP 16,640.00.

What the form checks:

  • The form turns a salary or day rate into an hourly figure using the weekly hours the employer states, and compares the lowest figure in the ad with the floor.
  • The floor is GBP 12.71 an hour, because an ad open to everyone could be taken by someone aged 21 or over, who must be paid at least that. Two exceptions, both read by a person before they go live: (a) a labelled apprenticeship, where the floor is GBP 8.00 and the ad says the training provider or qualification and that pay rises with age after the first year; (b) an ad that shows a pay figure for each age band, each at or above the rate for that band.
  • Only guaranteed basic pay counts towards the floor in our check. Tips, commission and bonuses may be shown separately but do not count.
  • This is our screen, not a legal ruling. The employer remains responsible for paying at least the legal minimum.

Part 3. Wording that discriminates

The employer answers for what the ad says. We can be liable too if we publish it knowing it breaks the Act, unless we reasonably relied on the employer's statement that it is lawful (Equality Act 2010, section 112). So the form takes the statement, the screen looks for risky wording, and a person reads what it finds.

The nine protected characteristics (Equality Act 2010, section 4): age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation.

Examples to seed the word screen. They are signs, not a complete list. A flag sends the ad to a person; it does not reject it.

  • Age
    • Wording that raises a flag: "young", "youthful", "mature", "recent graduate", "digital native", "under 25", "over 40", "a team of twenty-somethings"
    • Ask the employer for instead: The skills, experience or qualification actually needed
  • Sex
    • Wording that raises a flag: "salesman", "saleswoman", "he/she" job titles, "female only", "male only"
    • Ask the employer for instead: A neutral title ("sales assistant", "bench jeweller")
  • Race, nationality, ethnic origin
    • Wording that raises a flag: "British only", "native English speaker", a named ethnicity
    • Ask the employer for instead: "Fluent English" if that is truly needed; right to work is checked by the employer later
  • Religion or belief
    • Wording that raises a flag: A named faith, or "Christian environment"
    • Ask the employer for instead: Remove, unless a genuine occupational requirement applies and the ad says so
  • Disability
    • Wording that raises a flag: "fit and healthy", "able-bodied", "no health problems"
    • Ask the employer for instead: The actual task ("able to sit at a bench for long periods, with adjustments where needed")
  • Pregnancy, maternity, marriage
    • Wording that raises a flag: "single", "no family commitments", "no childcare issues"
    • Ask the employer for instead: Remove
  • Sexual orientation, gender reassignment
    • Wording that raises a flag: Any wording about either
    • Ask the employer for instead: Remove

Part 4. Unpaid work

  • The only three exceptions we allow, each labelled in the ad title:
    1. School work experience (pupils of compulsory school age on a placement).
    2. College or university placement (a student on a UK further or higher education course, where the placement is part of the course and lasts under a year).
    3. Volunteering for a charity, voluntary organisation or public body (expenses only; a genuine volunteer).
  • Not offered at launch: unpaid trial days, "work for exposure", unpaid training places, work shadowing.
  • A person reads every ad that uses an exception.

Part 5. The banner and the Report button

Part 6. After a report

  1. Hide the ad at once. Keep the ad text, the account, the times and the reports as a case record.
  2. Suspend the poster while a person looks. A person decides.
  3. Tell the reporter the outcome.
  4. Report real fraud to Report Fraud and JobsAware, and tell any real firm whose name was used.
  5. We cannot see who applied, because applying goes to the employer. So we tell members who saved the ad or whose alerts matched it, put a warning on the closed ad's page and mention it in the next letter if it matters.
  6. Block the email address and domain.

Who provides The Bench

The Bench, by Hamed Arab Academy, is provided by Studio Saina Ltd, company number 12770445, Victoria Mansions, 32-35 Hall Street, Birmingham B18 6BS. You can write to us at hi@hamedarab.academy.