HR Professional - October/November 2008 - (Page 15)

UPFRONT L AW | PREVENTION Dismissal Maximum moonlighting A Toronto lawyer learned a painful lesson about having your cake and eating it in June after the Ontario Public Service Labour Relations Board found she was in the wrong for starting a new full-time job while maintaining her old one, and telling neither employer. In November 2003, the woman, a senior lawyer in the Toronto ofﬁce of the Canada Revenue Agency, accepted a job with the Canadian Forces Grievance Board (CFGB) in Ottawa, reported The Globe and Mail. She decided to try juggling the two positions—one in Toronto and the other in Ottawa—in case the new one didn’t work out. For her ﬁrst week at the CFGB, she booked off some vacation time at the CRA. She then returned to her job in Toronto, while reporting in sick every day for a week to the CFGB. The ruse continued until her deception was uncovered by HR. The lawyer was promptly ﬁred from CFGB while the CRA investigated and later ﬁred her. The lawyer took her case to the Public Service Labour Relations Board, arguing that she entered into a voluntary unpaid internship for job shadowing purposes. To the conﬂict of interest concerns, her lawyer said, “a mistake concerning a potential conﬂict of interest is just that—a mistake and need not be bad faith.” CFGB told the board it didn’t have internships, while CRA argued that the lawyer had “shown the CRA that its trust in her was misplaced.” Adjudicator Barry Done agreed, saying the lawyer’s credibility was “at best, lacking, if not completely absent,” and that the CRA had “ample reason to conclude that the employment relationship is moribund.” Source: The Globe and Mail Health & Safety BIC YC L E S A N D R E PRODUC T I V E H E A LT H After eight years of studies into the health effects of occupational cycling, researchers from the U.S. National Institute for Occupation Safety and Health (NIOSH) have concluded that “noseless” bicycle seats are best for those who spend lots of time on a bike—like bicycle cops. Studies have shown riding a bicycle with a traditional (nosed) saddle has been associated with urogenital paresthesia and sexual dysfunction. The NIOSH researchers published their ﬁndings in the Journal of Sexual Medicine. Their article— “Cutting Off the Nose to Save the Penis”—describes their study of bike police in ﬁve American cities and their assessment of the effectiveness of noseless saddles in alleviating the pressure on the groin and health effects caused by the traditional bicycle saddle. No-nose saddles were demonstrated to be an effective intervention for bicycling police ofﬁcers. These results indicate that no-nose saddles may alleviate discomfort and maintain sexual health for men who ride bicycles as part of their job as well as for the ﬁve million recreational cyclists. w w w. HRT houghtLeader. c om O c t o b e r / N o v e m b e r 2 0 0 8 15 http://www.HRThoughtLeader.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of HR Professional - October/November 2008

HR Professional - October/November 2008 Contents Editor's Letter Contributors Leadership Matters Upfront Legal Compensation Human Capital Talent Management Murphy’s Law Wise Counsel On Message HR 101 Interview with Joseph McCool Off the Shelf The Last Word

HR Professional - October/November 2008

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