Ethics and complaints procedures & violations of ASA ethics if you have a complaint against a Nominee,Finalist or Award Recipient.

Contact animalstarevents@gmail.com

Our Complaints Officer will deal with all complaints 

We are unable to accept any complaints via messenger or WhatsApp or by Text due to privacy issues and Mary Burgess Founder of ASA is unable to deal with any form of complaint in order to protect all parties.

If you have a complaint please email animalstarawards@gmail.com

The following guidelines have been drawn up by our ethics & complaints team to help protect ASA award nominees, finalists & award recipients & any supporting organisations. Under our guidelines ASA considers four types of complaints regarding the violation of our ethics:

1.) Alleged use of stealing other professional’s images/infographic or intentionally copying others members content.

2.) Alleged bullying or harassment of our nominees, finalists or award recipients & other professionals and clients including our founder.

3.) Safeguarding issues; including taking advantage of vulnerable individuals & abuse.

4.) The use of ASA logo’s to promote a business that practices aversion techniques on any animal.

ASA may choose to deal with a matter according to either one or more of our ethics is dependent on the nature of the allegation. All reports received are in strictest confidence we do not discuss complaints or cases with anyone outside of ASA.

How to report a complaint

Reports of an alleged violation of our ethics,terms & conditions will be handled according to the guidelines as listed above.

The responsibility for the investigation of alleged ethic violations is designated to the ASA Complaints Officer.

Founder Mary Burgess will oversea the investigation but will remain impartial at all times.

• Any person that feels they have been treated in any way that violates ASA ethics & terms & conditions may file & report a complaint; the Complaints Officer will only consider complaints filed on behalf of a third party if the complaint is accompanied by substantial evidence from the following publicly available sources; records, reports or court judgement.
• All ethics complaints will be investigated and handled in an appropriate time & documented in a confidentially. These will only be given access to the Complaints Officer & ASA founder.

How to file a report of an alleged ethics violation

The individual reporting the alleged violation must present this to ASA in writing as a brief account & the nature of the issue to animalstarevents@gmail.com this will be passed onto the Complaints Officer dependent on the nature of the issue. You will be then be sent a complaints form to fill in. This report will contain more detailed information and any relevant evidence.

• We cannot respond to text messages or messages via Messenger for incidents regarding violation of ethics, other than responding to contact via email & are unable to make further comments via other forms of communication, other than email, until the full process has been followed. This is to fully protect all parties.
• Founder Mary Burgess must not be contacted on her personal email,messenger or WhatsApp accounts.
• The report will remain confidential throughout & after the process.
• The following information must be included in the alleged violation report: 
•  1.) The names of the alleged person & the actual complainant in reference to the violation of ASA ethics,terms and conditions. This must be specific. The complaint must reference the area that you feel have been violated 2.) A specific description including when & where the violation was alleged to have occurred, who was involved & what happened and evidence.
• ASA do not accept reports from sources of ‘hearsay’ or third parties unless from a public source & can only take allegations further with sufficient evidence.
• The reported person will only be contacted if sufficient evidence is given & details of any parties involved will be kept strictly confidential.

Report receipt

    1. ASA will acknowledge receipt of the alleged violation without comment within 48 hours of receipt.

1. Reports will be kept confidential by all parties; this means no information about the complaint will be discussed with any other person other than the ASA complaints officer.If confidentiality is breached it may be considered a violation of our ethics & terms and conditions.
2. ASA will forward the complaint to the Complaints Officer. The details of the complaint will be kept confidential in order to preserve the ability to fair & objective interaction with the person.

Investigation

1. ASA will review the complaint. If necessary, they may ask for more information.
2. If the initial review indicates that the complaint is not a violation of ASA ethics terms & conditions, then the complainant will be notified in writing & no investigation will be instigated unless further facts or evidence is provided within 7 days.
3. Once all the information & sufficient evidence has been gathered, ASA will make a decision based on the individual case,nature of the incident involved & may include:

• Further education & advice.
• The reward status may be withdrawn & the right to use ASA badges ECT prohibited permanently.
• The person or organisation will no longer have the right to say they have been an ASA award recipient.

Appeal

• If an individual or organisation chooses to appeal the decision made by ASA they will be given 28 days to do so in writing.
• All correspondence will be given to the ASA Complaints Officer and kept private & confidential.
• A final decision will be made within 14 days & the individual will be notified in writing by email.

Confidentiality

• Complete confidentiality shall be maintained by all involved parties throughout the process.
• Once a decision has been made, the parties involved will be notified that a determination has been made. In some circumstances both parties may be contacted by phone, only before our final decision has been made.
• Details of this decision will remain private & confidential.
• A violation of confidentiality by any party involved in the matter will be considered a violation of the ASA ethics & could affect the outcome of the investigation.

The individual reporting the alleged violation must present this to Founder Mary Burgess in writing preferably by email to animalstarawards@gmail.com & this will be forwarded to our Complaints Officer.

Your correspondence must contain more detailed information and any relevant evidence required by ASA.

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