A rather astounding story has been getting some press over the last week or so : apparently a city in Montana (in the USA) has been asking job applicants to sign a form allowing their prospective new employer to probe “background and references” …as well as including the following requirement:
“list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.,”
And, as if that weren’t enough - your login details and passwords too!!
A more recent update suggests that the employer has seen the error in its ways, and has retracted the requirement, but I imagine much of the (negative PR) damage has already been done.
Under New Zealand law, the prospective employer would not be in breach of any privacy constraints in seeking this information (it would only be provided with the person’s consent), nor would it be in breach of any relevant employment law by asking for it. And one can imagine why the employer might think it would benefit from having access to this information before making its hiring decision.
But the real disincentive - as the employer discovered in this case - is the reaction of candidates. Would you want to work for an employer that started off your relationship by snooping around this sort of private information?
Some interesting issues around this one.
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The State Services Commission has issued pandemic planning guidelines for the public service. You can have a look here.
The guidelines are obviously carefully thought out - and premised on a series of sensible principles (such as ensuring, so far as possible, that service delivery continues through any pandemic).
Of particular interest is the advice about leave for employees who are effectively quarantined (ie not sick, but required to be away from work in case they become sick). The starting point is an enquiry about whether the person can work from home: if so, no leave is required to be given. Then, in the alternative:
- Where it is not possible to work from home special paid leave should be given.
- If the employee becomes ill then sick leave should be used (or if no sick leave the options available to a sick employee whose leave has run out should apply).
These guidelines will be updated from time to time - and I’ll keep you posted if they are amended.
Hot on the heels of this update, the Department of Labour has updated its site to include advice about pandemic planning. Have a look here.
And in related news, have a look here at swineflutracker.net - an interesting web site offering information and advice about the pandemic.
The nine day fortnight was greeted by most employees with a mixture of suspicion and relief.
On one hand, the concept (which is referred to in some other countries as a “furlough”) is pitched as an alternative to redundancy: work less hours (and get less pay), but keep your job.
On the other hand,a recent article from the New York Times suggests that many employees who have agreed to take a nine day fortnight actually find themselves working on their day off more often than not.
The end product is a situation in which the employer ends up paying 10% less salary for a 100% work - and, apparently, dissatisfied workers.
One wonders if New Zealand workers are sharing a similar experience.
As an employment lawyer (or, for that matter, an HR adviser) you can tend to become cynical about human nature. When your diet is one of eternal conflict with employees (ie poor performance, misconduct and general misbehaviour) you can forget that there are, in fact, good employees in every workplace.
Much less, beyond that, great employees. The sort of person who will do an amazing job just because that is the sort of person they are. Not for the sake of a good performance review, or for any direct personal benefit - but because they believe in what they are doing, and perform accordingly.
I’m not normally a fan of Paul Holmes, but you really must read his recent New Zealand Herald piece on Air New Zealand’s “We’re Impressed” awards. Some of the stories here are the sort of thing that restore your faith in employee dedication.
Good on these employees - and good on Air New Zealand for recognising them.
I’m sure that there are people in your workplace (and mine) that deserve this sort of accolade.
An interesting story developed this week about sick leave entitlements in the event of swine flu. Here is the issue:
If someone in your office is diagnosed with the virus (a contagious illness) it may be a requirement upon your employer to quarantine some of that person’s co-workers. The reason? They may have the disease - and be contagious themselves - so sitting at home is safer for all concerned.
So should those workers be on sick leave? They aren’t actually sick, they may never become sick - and the only reason they’re away from work is just in case they turn out to be sick. Isn’t it a bit unfair to dock them their sick leave (much less require them to take annual leave) in this situation?
An interesting paper from the CTU examines some of the issues - and makes some interesting observations about the approach being taken overseas (where some public servants are being given up to 20 days’ special leave in this circumstance). Read on… Read the rest of this entry »
The internet is indeed a fantastic thing. Tom Wolfe, author of A Man in Full and well known commentator, likened its power to the concept of biblical “convergence” : It’s one thing to convert a whole bunch of people to your way of thinking, but a much more powerful step to bring them all together.
On that subject, a new website offers some interesting opportunities to unions around the world. Creativeunions.org is an experiment in bringing together unionists to strengthen collective knowledge and skills. In essence, it operates as a marketplace for unionists to share their campaign ideas and materials.
There are some interesting things on show - particularly from some of the Russian unions. The site is certainly worth a look.
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