Rosabeth Moss Kanter makes an interesting point on her blog at The Harvard Business Review when she writes about a successful legal action brought by Mattel, owner of the Barbie brand against MGA Entertainment Inc which owns Bratz.

Former Mattel designer Carter Bryant was charged with intellectual property theft because the company said he had the idea for Bratz while working for Mattel. The company’s contracts make it clear inventions made while working for the company become its property.

So, if your current employer does things badly and you know a way to do them better, you now need to halt your thinking processes while you serve out your notice or you could find yourself on the nasty end of a writ. It’s a twist on the idea an knowledge worker is someone who is paid to think for a living.

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The Guardian reports British bosses are using drug tests as a way to sack staff without paying redundancy.

Routine drug testing is common in workplaces where people use dangerous equipment or drive vehicles. However the Guardian story says employers in areas such as finance, banking and retail now test workers so they can cut staff numbers without the need for pay-outs.

The Guardian says expanding drug testing into non-traditional areas could be a breach of human rights in the UK. This would also be true in New Zealand.

Sacking staff tested in this way would also be viewed as unjustifiable by the employment court. The court would look very dimly on an employer if the testing was done to avoid paying redundancy.

The practice is nasty because it’s much harder for a person to find a new job when dismissed for an offence. Also the instant nature of such a sacking means their money tap is immediately switched off. Adding this to the loss of a formal notice period and redundancy pay is cruel.

One problem identified in the Guardian story is that cannabis stays detectable for some time after smoking.

See:
Rise in use of drug tests to sack staff without redundancy pay -The Guardian
Using drug testing to avoid redundancy pay – The New Zealand Herald

Important message from global entertainment industry

Cartoonist Dylan Horrocks protested against New Zealand’s S92A copyright law change in an appropriate manner by drawing this copyright-free cartoon.

Horrocks is a cartoonist who depends on the notion of copyright for his livelihood. As a journalist I’m in exactly the same position.

One of the wisest things I learned from former colleague Jack Schofield was governments have a habit of enacting laws that result in the opposite effect to their intentions.

New Zealand’s poorly thought-out S92A is a classic example of this. Rather than strengthening New Zealand’s copyright law, it has further undermined the concept of copyright in this country.

This is not a good thing.

Thanks to @glynmoody for drawing my attention to this locally produced cartoon even if he is sitting on the other side of the world and to www.scoop.c o.nz for hosting the cartoon here.

And Juha Saarinen provides some context for NZ’s harsh new copyright law.

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