Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER July 10, 2017 18 INSIGHT SPIKED AGENDA OTTAWA — A 27-year govern- ment employee found to have spiked an offi ce water cooler with chlorine lost his bid to have his dis- missal overturned recently. Keven Knox was working at a Canadian Food Inspection Agency lab in Ot- tawa in September 2011 but was terminated nine months later when it was determined he had used the chlorine, according to the Ottawa Citizen. Knox fi led a grievance but the Public Service Relations Board determined the decision to suspend and then fi re Knox was reasonable and necessary. While Knox denied putting bleach in the water, video surveillance suggested otherwise. " e grievor was observed on se- curity video pursuing a course of actions in the workplace that im- plicated him in an incident that jeopardized the health and safety of his co-workers," said adjudicator Bryan Gray. CAUGHT ON CAMERA NEW YORK — e amiable mas- cot for the New York Mets showed off his darker side at a game re- cently — and was fi red as a result, according to the Associated Press. "Mr. Met" was working at a game against the Milwaukee Brew- ers — where the New York team was losing 7-1 — when a fan asked him about the game. e mascot fl ashed his middle fi nger (one of four), and a video of the incident soon went viral. More than one person wears the costume but this particular individual would not do so again, according to an offi cial. "We apologize for the inappropri- ate action of this employee," said the Mets in an email. "We do not condone this type of behaviour. We are dealing with this matter internally." SKIRTING THE ISSUE PARIS — A heat wave in Europe tested company dress code policies recently, as seen when bus drivers in Nantes, France, protested a ban on wearing shorts. e six men turned up to work in skirts instead of the expected uniform of long pants, according to the Telegraph, denouncing the "unacceptable" working conditions in vehicles with no air conditioning. "Our uniform is not appropriate for these high temperatures. We envy women at moments like this," said Didier Sauvetre, a driver from the CFDT union. Temperatures in the buses were near 50C, according to Gabriel Magner, another union member. "A modern approach would allow us to wear long shorts from time to time. Women drivers can wear skirts, but not the men. It's a form of discrimination." As a result, the company, Semitan, de- cided to relax its strict dress policy — temporarily. "'Equipping all the staff would have a huge cost and the new buses are all equipped with air conditioning, even in the cab," said CEO Pascal Bolo. "My of- fi ce is not air-conditioned, either." NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK OXFORD, N.J. — Sanitation workers in Oxford, N.J., were given an extra task recently when a distraught woman came look- ing for a beloved necklace. Saman- tha LaRochelle had been admitted to hospital and while unconscious, staff removed her precious pen- dant and accidentally threw it in the trash, according to the Asso- ciated Press. e sanitation com- pany that handles hospital waste was tracked down — with help from a police offi cer looking at nine hours of surveillance video — and after a two-hour search with others looking through 15 tons of hospital waste, worker Steve Acierno found the prized necklace. "She was super-excited to have it back." Just a great start to our day. We were all really happy for her,'' he said. LaRochelle later treated the workers to lunch and cake. "It's something I could never replace and they took the time, the eff ort,'' she said. W EIRD ORKPLACE THE Vol. 30 No. 12 – July 10, 2017 PUBLISHED BY Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Rd. Toronto, ON M1T 3V4 ©Copyright 2017 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, Media Solutions, Canada: 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 News Editor Marcel Vander Wier - (416) 649-7837 marcel.vanderwier@thomsonreuters.com Employment Law Editor: Jeffrey R. Smith - (416) 649-7881 jeffrey.r.smith@thomsonreuters.com Labour Relations News Editor: John Dujay - (416) 298-5129 john.dujay@thomsonreuters.com Web/IT Co-ordinator: Mina Patel - (416) 649-7879 mina.patel@thomsonreuters.com ADVERTISING Sales Manager: Paul Burton - (416) 649-9928 paul.burton@thomsonreuters.com Production Co-ordinator: Pamela Menezes - (416) 649-9298 pamela.menezes@thomsonreuters.com MARKETING AND CIRCULATION Marketing & Audience Development Manager: Robert Symes - (416) 649-9551 rob.symes@thomsonreuters.com Marketing Co-ordinator: Keith Fulford - (416) 649-9585 keith.fulford@thomsonreuters.com PRODUCTION Manager, Media Production: Lisa Drummond - (416) 649-9415 lisa.drummond@thomsonreuters.com Art Director: Dave Escuadro SUBSCRIPTIONS Annual subscription: $175 (plus GST) GST#: 897 176 350 RT To subscribe, call one of the customer service numbers listed below or visit www.hrreporter.com. 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: customersupport. legaltaxcanada@tr.com LETTERS TO THE EDITOR todd.humber@thomsonreuters.com CHRR reserves the right to edit for length and clarity. Todd Humber EDiTOR'S NOTeS The doctor's note is on life support – and it's time to pull the plug Ontario moves to ban notes in all but extreme cases of sick leave abuse T he days of asking every worker for a sick note when they miss a day's work are coming to an end. The Ontario government has announced plans to eliminate the doctor's note as a tool in the employer's arsenal to combat absenteeism. As part of major reforms to workplace legislation, the province is going to ban man- agers from asking for one. e lone exception will be for repeat off enders — workers who take more than 10 sick days in a year. To which we can only say — albeit it a little reluctantly — it's probably time. Employers have relied on the doctor's note for decades to con- fi rm the employee truly was sick. But there's a major fl aw in this thinking, which Scott Wooder, president of the Ontario Medical Association, outlined in an exclu- sive op-ed he wrote in 2014 for Canadian HR Reporter. Doctors rarely, if ever, reject a request from a patient for a sick note. "In 28 years, I've rarely denied anyone a sick note," the doctor wrote. "If a patient says they've been vomiting or have a sore throat or otherwise feel terrible, of course I take them at their word." He estimated he sees, on av- erage, two patients per day who have come to his offi ce solely for the purpose of documenting a sick day for their employer — that's an incredible waste of health-care time and money. In Alberta, a fed-up doctor wrote the following note — which went viral after being posted on Reddit. "[First name] has had, by their own report, a cold today and sensibly stayed home from work rather than spreading this to his colleagues/customers. I have no test for the common cold and therefore believe him/her, however you feel his time and mine should be wasted by making him sit in the walk-in clinic for hours and me spending time writing a sick note that I could be spending on people who genuinely need my attention. Please reconsider your policy on this — there are surely better ways of wasting your tax dollars." More pleas have come from across the country. Last year, Dave Gaudreau, an NDP backbencher in Manitoba, called for a provin- cial law to forbid "bosses from re- questing sick notes until a worker has missed at least seven days in a calendar year," according to a post on Canadian HR Reporter. Not surprisingly, labour groups are on board when it comes to making the notes extinct. Gil Mc- Gowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), re- cently called on that province to ban sick notes. He chided mostly non-union workplaces that were using the notes as a disincentive for employees to stay home and get better. Employers, though, are under- standably wary of losing this tool. Forcing an employee to get a doc- tor's note is exactly what the AFL said it is — a disincentive. Sick days, after all, are not an entitlement. If you have seven paid sick days as part of your collective agreement or your employment contract, they shouldn't be viewed as days which need to be taken. Unfortunately, that's exactly how some employ- ees view them – an extension of their paid vacation time. Use 'em or lose 'em. To curtail abuse, some employers asked for proof — and the only way to get it was to ask an independent third party. But let's not forget that most employees don't max out their sick days. And, frankly, managers shouldn't be encouraging employ- ees to come in when they're sick anyway. Not only are they not as productive, but they're also po- tentially contagious. Forcing the same sick employee to trudge to a doctor's office, taking scarce time from a health-care provider and also potentially making other people in the waiting room sick in the process, doesn't really serve anyone well. Ontario recognizes that em- ployers still need to rely on doctor's notes, and will still allow them for absences in excess of 10 days in one year. at's a nice round number, even if it's a little too high. Some- thing in the range of seven would be more preferable. We put a lot of trust in our em- ployees to make the right deci- sions for the business on a regular basis. Trust is a crucial part of employee engagement, after all. So employers need to relax and trust that staff are being honest when they call in to say they're sick. Employers, at least in On- tario, will have to turn a blind eye — unless the worker truly starts abusing sick days. BUGGED OUT AT WORK AUGUSTA, GA. — Employees were forced out of city offi ces in Augusta, Ga., recently after an unhappy citizen showed up with an unwelcome "gift." e unidentifi ed man showed up at the offi ces several times on a Friday afternoon to complain about bedbugs at his apartment, and was looking for assistance in fi nding another apartment. When he learned he didn't qualify because of his income, the man dumped a cup of bedbugs on the customer service counter, according to the Kennebec Journal. "He told police he wanted them to experience the same thing he was experiencing," said Matt Nazar, city development director. e offi ces re- opened the following Monday after being sprayed with bedbug-killing chemicals by a pest control company. Credit: Ritu jagya (Shutterstock) a distraught woman came look- ing for a beloved necklace. Saman- tha LaRochelle had been admitted to hospital and while unconscious, — Employees were forced out of city offi ces in Augusta, Ga., recently after an unhappy citizen showed up with an unwelcome "gift." e unidentifi ed man showed up at the offi ces several times on a Friday afternoon to complain about bedbugs at his apartment, and was looking for assistance in fi nding another apartment. When he learned he didn't qualify because of his income, the man dumped a Kennebec . "He told police he wanted them to experience the same thing he was experiencing," said Matt Nazar, city development director. e offi ces re- opened the following Monday after being sprayed with bedbug-killing chemicals Credit: Ritu jagya (Shutterstock)

• Cover