Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER May 16, 2016 22 INSIGHT MAYBE HE NEEDS AN OFF-SWITCH? JOHANNESBURG, S.A. — e head of South Africa's third largest telecom got himself into hot water recently after making less-than- popular remarks about women in the workplace. "We have good- looking women, we have clever women, we have smart women," said Jose dos Santos, CEO of Cell C, in a radio interview, according to the Telegraph. " ey just have a diff erent way of managing, they have a diff erent way of engaging meetings and engaging with par- ties and it creates a diff erent dy- namic… Women do have a bitch- switch and, boy, if you see two women fi ghting, it's worse than two men having an argument." Dos Santos also suggested the role of fe- male workers is to be gorgeous so they can inspire men to look bet- ter. "Do you know what it does to the atmosphere in that company? e men dress better, they shave every morning." Facing consider- able backlash, the CEO apologized: "Clearly, a lot of people have been off ended, and it's a situation that I regret very much. It's one of those things where this kind of language cannot be tolerated in society." BB-8 WOULD BE IMPRESSED DONCASTER, U.K. — Amazon has new "workers" on the factory fl oor in Doncaster, U.K., and they are defi nitely hard-working. ey cross the warehouse fl oor hun- dreds of times a day while carry- ing great weights on their backs. They're actually robots called Kiva, named after the company purchased by Amazon in 2012. And they're guided by QR codes found on the fl oor tiles, the same black-and white-squares that can be read by cellphones. e robots are sent commands to lift items from shelves and deliver them elsewhere, according to the Tele- graph. Human colleagues then pack the items in boxes to be shipped to customers. "Lots of people think of them as their co- workers," said Kerry Person, head of engineering at Amazon, which now has 30,000 Kiva "co-workers" operating globally. QUESTIONS, ANYONE? WASHINGTON, D.C. — Press briefi ngs at the White House are often dull, routine affairs, but reporters had a nice break recently when a once popular but not-so- real White House press secretary took to the podium — actor Allison Janney. Having starred as C.J. Cregg for seven seasons on the TV show e West Wing, Janney took charge instead of real press secretary Josh Earnest, according to Entertainment Weekly. The actor said Earnest was having a root canal — recalling a similar plot line in the political drama — but then he showed up to reveal Janney, currently starring on Mom, was there to discuss the opioid epidemic and to support people dealing with substance abuse. Janney's character is a recovering addict on the show. FIERY FATE FOR FAMILY MAYERTHORPE, ALTA — A railway bridge in Alberta went up in fl ames recently, forcing the evacuation of nearby schools and a trailer park while almost three dozen firefighters were called in to help, along with forestry services members, helicopters and a water bomber, according to the CBC. But that wasn't the only shocking event — the son of the former mayor of the town has since been accused of lighting the blaze. Lawson Schalm, 19, had also worked for the fi re depart- ment for several years and is now facing 18 charges of arson related to numerous fi res in the area. "We were shocked. He had a future that he was working towards," said father Albert Schalm, who remained hopeful. "We refuse to be devastated by this. I refuse to throw my son under the bus. I'm not that kind of dad. My goal is to get him back on the road, get his future going again." W EIRD ORKPLACE THE Vol. 29 No. 9 – May 16, 2016 PUBLISHED BY Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Rd. Toronto, ON M1T 3V4 ©Copyright 2015 by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. CANADIAN HR REPORTER is published 21 times a year. Publications Mail – Agreement # 40065782 Registration # 9496 – ISSN 0838-228X Director, Carswell Media: Karen Lorimer - (416) 649-9411 karen.lorimer@thomsonreuters.com EDITORIAL Publisher/Editor in Chief: Todd Humber - (416) 298-5196 todd.humber@thomsonreuters.com Editor/Supervisor: Sarah Dobson - (416) 649-7896 sarah.dobson@thomsonreuters.com Senior Editor: Liz Bernier - (416) 649-7837 liz.bernier@thomsonreuters.com Employment Law Editor: Jeffrey R. 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Address changes and returns: Send changes and undeliverable Canadian addresses to: SUBSCRIBER SERVICES Canadian HR Reporter One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Rd. Toronto, ON M1T 3V4 CUSTOMER SERVICE Call: (416) 609-3800 (Toronto) (800) 387-5164 (outside Toronto) Fax: (416) 298-5082 (Toronto) (877) 750-9041 (outside Toronto) Email: carswell.customerrelations@ thomsonreuters.com LETTERS TO THE EDITOR todd.humber@thomsonreuters.com CHRR reserves the right to edit for length and clarity. Todd Humber Editor's Notes HOT, CROSS BAKER DOLE, FRANCE — Back in December, French baker Michel Fla- mant was becoming increasingly tired at his store over several days, and eventually he collapsed. Fortunately, a homeless man, Jerome Aucant — who often dropped by the store — entered the prem- ises and fi nding the baker unconscious, dragged him outside and alerted authorities. It turned out Flamant came close to dying of carbon monoxide poisoning after having a stove fi xed earlier in the week. Once recovered, the 62-year-old owner pledged to sell his business to his savior for one euro, and he was soon training Aucant, according to Reuters. e move generated plenty of media attention — but was not meant to last. Just recently, Flamant announced the deal was off after fi nding his would-be successor had invited a group of friends to the bakery in his absence. "(I) discovered that Jerome had set up a bar of sorts with wine and beer, and all his homeless friends in the oven room. I told him this was not part of the deal," he said. "Tempers rose and he started insulting me, so I told him to pack his bags and go." Credit: studiovin (Shutterstock) The ever-moving line on privacy W here do we draw the line in the workplace when it comes to privacy? at's a fair question to ask in light of two stories in this issue of Canadian HR Reporter. e fi rst, one of our cover stories, looks at the Toronto Transit Commission's decision to implement random testing of employees for alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, opiates, am- phetamines and phencycline. e second looks at a case in- volving a union for federal cor- rectional offi cers who want ac- cess to medical information for inmates whose bodily fl uids they come into contact with — yes, you read that right. Apparently, prison guards are "regularly" attacked with urine, feces and blood. (Keep that in mind the next time you feel like complaining about that loud cubicle neighbour who likes to clip his toenails during lunch.) In the former case, a union is fi ghting to protect the privacy of workers and in the latter, a union is fi ghting to expose the private information of inmates. Labour relations is never boring. But back to the line — where is it drawn or, more importantly, where should it be drawn? No- body would argue that it's OK for a bus driver to be intoxicated or stoned on the job. Nor would most people think it OK for a prison guard to be unknowingly exposed to a disease such as HIV. e federal guards will likely get their legislation — seven of the 10 provinces already have laws per- mitting access to medical infor- mation in these circumstances. But the TTC situation is a bit murkier —Canadian courts have long history of taking a dim view of random testing, absent evi- dence of a serious substance abuse problem. But with changing societal norms, what constitutes a seri- ous problem? Marijuana is on the verge of being legalized in Canada — and its use is already common- place. It's not unusual to walk the streets and smell pot. People use it openly in public, often in full view of police offi cers, with little or no ramifi cations. Some think pot is far safer than alcohol — people who would never get behind the wheel drunk think being perhaps a little buzzed while driving isn't so bad. Legal- ization will only increase the number of people using it and the frequency with which it is consumed. at's bound to have implications for health and safety in the workplace. But let's return to that line one more time — how much expec- tation of privacy do we actually have? In the United States, the average person is photographed 75 times per day. at includes locations like gas stations, traffi c cameras, public transit, coff ee shops, parking ga- rages, elevators — the list goes on and on. In London, the fi gure has been pegged as high as 300 — that British city is blanketed with sur- veillance cameras. Anyone with an iPhone knows how easy it is to track your ev- ery movement — smartphones have made it very easy to spy on people. With the right software, employers can easily determine where employees are at any given moment and how fast they are travelling. Marketers use this in- formation all the time to deliver targeted messages. Social media sites make a living on people sharing personal data, including photographs, videos and favourite haunts. More than 650 billion photos are uploaded every year. And the technology for identifying people in all these photos is getting scary good — Facebook can fi gure out it's you in a photograph even if it can't see your face. It relies on your cloth- ing, body shape and posture to fi gure it out. Yann Lecun, head of artifi cial intelligence at Facebook, told New Scientist there are a lot of cues that can be used. "People have characteristic as- pects, even if you look at them from the back," he said. "For ex- ample, you can recognize (Face- book founder) Mark Zuckerberg very easily, because he always wears a gray T-shirt." It's never been easier for author- ities and employers to monitor the workforce. And there seems to be no end to our appetite for shar- ing personal information online. So it's a safe bet that the line for what is acceptable and what's not when it comes to privacy is going to keep moving and blurring. For employers, there is no solid or easy answer. One meme I saw recently on Facebook summed it up thusly: What George Orwell failed to predict was that we'd buy the cameras ourselves, and our biggest fear would be that nobody was watching. National HR Awards Nominations are now open for Canadian HR Reporter's second annual National HR Awards. We have two new categories for 2016 — HR Professional of the Year and Best Teambuilding Program. Visit www.nationalhrawards.com today to submit your entries. Back in December, French baker Michel Fla- mant was becoming increasingly tired at his store over several days, and eventually he collapsed. Fortunately, a homeless man, Jerome Aucant — who often dropped by the store — entered the prem- ises and fi nding the baker unconscious, dragged him outside and alerted authorities. It turned out Flamant came close to dying of carbon monoxide poisoning after having a stove fi xed earlier in the week. Once recovered, the 62-year-old owner pledged to sell his business to his savior for one euro, and he was soon training Aucant, according to Reuters. e move

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