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RACHEL CORBETT NAMED AS TEAM OMBUDSPERSON, COMMONWEALTH GAMES
Rachel Corbett, co-founder of the Centre for Sport and Law, has been appointed as the Team Ombudsperson for the Canadian Team, competing at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, in October 2010. The appointment was recently announced by Commonwealth Games Canada, in association with AthletesCAN and Coaches of Canada. Rachel joins 48 other Mission Staff members, supporting a team of over 260 athletes and nearly 100 coaches. |
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E- Newsletter - Spring 2009 Dina Bell-Laroche joins Centre for Sport and Law as an Associate Overtime - a Ticking Time Bomb? "Sex Discrimination in Sport: An Update" - a New Publication from CAAWS Some Thoughts on the Rapid Growth of Social Media Check out New Articles Posted on our Website Reader Survey - We Want to Hear From You!
Dina Bell-Laroche joins Centre for Sport and Law as an Associate
We are pleased to announce that long-time sport consultant and President of Full Circle Communications, Dina Bell-Laroche, has joined our company as an associate specializing in strategic communications and values-based planning.
“Dina brings with her a wealth of knowledge in the areas of communications, strategic management and values-based planning and we are thrilled to have her join the Centre for Sport and Law” stated Hilary Findlay, one of the Centre’s co-founders.
“With the addition of Dina, we can begin to expand on the emerging priority areas that our clients have indicated are essential if they are to be effective, high performing organizations” said Steve Indig, the Centre’s Managing Director.
Over the past 18 years, the Centre for Sport and Law has evolved its legal services in sport into other management areas, in response to the needs of its clients. Organizations at all levels of the Canadian sport spectrum have indicated that they require support in the areas of human resource management, communications, strategic planning and risk management as well as legal services, policy development and dispute resolution.
The Centre for Sport and Law’s ability to respond to and provide services that are timely, adaptable, relevant and practical have made the organization the “go-to” place for problem-solving, dispute management, governance reform and risk management.
“I am enthusiastic about what the future holds for sport. I believe the team at the Centre for Sport and Law has an opportunity to respond to a growing appetite for a range of products and services that are designed to help sport organizations plan more proactively, manage more effectively, and recognize the importance of their organizational values in the process” echoed Rachel Corbett, co-founder of Centre along with Hilary Findlay.
Dina has been working in sport for almost two decades as an executive director, communications specialist and sport consultant with a number of organizations including the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, the True Sport Foundation and a number of national sport organizations. Three years ago, she established Full Circle Communications to enable a better balance between her passion for sport and her desire to be at home with her family. Dina is currently completing a Masters degree in Sport Management at Brock University where she is researching how organizational practices grounded on shared values can create the kind of culture required to help sport organizations achieve their vision.
“I’m very excited about partnering with the Centre for Sport and Law mainly because of its people. This organization cares deeply about helping others achieve their full potential and I’m exceptionally fortunate to have the opportunity to contribute to this effort,” explained Dina Bell-Laroche. “It’s my belief that we are going to experience significant change in the next few decades and I am committed to working with and helping sport organizations adapt to and respond to these changes in a values-driven manner.”
The Centre for Sport and Law is a consulting group founded in 1992, offering services and practical resources on governance, risk management and legal issues to the Canadian sport community. The Centre is comprised of co-founders Hilary Findlay and Rachel Corbett, partner Steve Indig, associate Dina Bell-Laroche and administrator Robin Witty. Visit www.sportlaw.ca for more information.
TIPS FOR SPORT LEADERS Overtime - a Ticking Time Bomb?
Curiously, we have been approached three times in the last month by sport organizations confronted with requests from employees to be paid out for significant accumulated overtime hours. In all cases, these claims have proved legitimate. A warning bell is ringing here! We would like to share this information with our newsletter readers.
Under provincial employment law in most provinces, the number of hours worked in excess of 44 hours per week are deemed overtime hours. Overtime hours are compensated at 1.5 times the employee’s wage. Employers and employees may enter into agreements to exchange time-off-in-lieu of payment of wages for overtime hours.
Well, that’s nothing new you say. You’re right! We’ve all known that, for a long time. We also know that working in the sport community often means working unusual hours including evenings, weekends and, depending on the sport and the season, working a lot of overtime hours.
Less well-known, however, are these two stipulations in many employment statutes in Canada:
· Overtime may be offset by time off only if the employer and employee enter into a written agreement to do so, and
· Compensating time off must be taken within 90 days, and if not, the employer must pay the overtime hours.
The reality is that not all employees have a written contract that stipulates a time-off-in-lieu policy. In fact, many employees have no written contract at all! Furthermore, the inclusion of a time-off-in-lieu policy in the organization’s personnel policy is alone, insufficient unless it is referenced in a separate written contract with the employee.
A further reality is that not all employers pay attention to the 90-day rule. A more common practice is that employees are instructed to take overtime before the end of the year. In some organizations, there is no firm policy and employees take the overtime whenever they can, which sometimes means that they don’t take it at all.
Taken together, these somewhat stringent employment rules and the less-than-stringent employment practices that we observe in parts of the sport community, add up to a significant potential liability for employers. A risky situation all around! One of the organizations that came to see us had an employee claiming approximately $40,000 in unpaid wages. As noted at the top of this piece, the claim was legitimate and we advised the organization to go back and try negotiating a deal combining paid time off and payment of salary. Failing a deal, the employee in question may have succeeded in having the Ministry of Labour order the employer to pay the entire amount.
Fortunately, this employment risk can be easily mitigated by paying careful attention to employment practices. At a minimum:
· Have a current written employment contract with all employees
· Include in this contract a provision for time-off-in-lieu of overtime
· Require that all overtime incurred have supervisory approval in advance, and have the supervisor also approve when the time off will be taken
· Maintain a careful written docket of overtime worked and time off taken
· Enforce the 90-day rule
We acknowledge that the details of this may vary from province to province, so if you have questions, contact Steve Indig to learn more.
RECENT SPORT LAW CASES/DECISIONS “Sex Discrimination in Sport – An Update” - A new publication from CAAWS
In one legal ruling, an all female fitness club is not required to provide membership to a man, yet in another, a scholastic hockey league is required to allow a female player onto a boy’s team. Such seemingly contradictory decisions can leave sport leaders scratching their heads about what might, and might not, constitute sex discrimination in sport.
Commissioned by the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity (CAAWS) and written by Hilary Findlay and Rachel Corbett of the Centre for Sport and Law, this report is a valuable, up-to-date legal snapshot of the ‘lay of the land’ as it applies to sex discrimination in Canada today. This is the first comprehensive examination of the subject since 1993 when CAAWS, in collaboration with the Government of Canada, published its first report on gender equity in sport after the landmark ruling Blainey v. Ontario Hockey Association.
The report “Sex Discrimination in Sport – An Update” covers developments over the 25 years since the Blainey ruling. Consistent with the approach of the Centre for Sport and Law, the report illustrates the legal principles by applying them to real-life discrimination scenarios. Although it covers a complex legal subject, the report is very readable and can be easily understood by non-lawyers.
This report is essential for every sport administrator seeking to understand equity and discrimination law as it pertains to the participation of females in sport. For a brief executive summary of the report, click here and for a copy of the full report (17 pages) click here.
FEATURE ARTICLE
Some Thoughts on the Rapid Growth of Social Media
If you have been reading the newspapers lately you will know that the world is a-twitter about Twitter and that Facebook long ago ceased to be the idle pursuit of university students. If you have teenage children you might have also noticed that they don’t use e-mail and in fact, they don’t even watch TV anymore. In fact, it has been suggested that e-mail may disappear entirely within five years!
We remarked upon some of these communication technology trends in our recent keynote address to the Royal Canadian Golf Association, and cautioned that sport organizations who ignore them do so at their peril. The power of social networking through the internet is enormous and an organization or company not paying attention will be left behind.
Here are a few examples of this potential … Last fall, after the US presidential election, there were a number of protests against the passage of Proposition 8 in California, a bill that rolled back civil rights for gays and lesbians in that state. The largest of these protests was in New York City and it was organized in less than 36 hours by a 17-year old using Facebook.
When a gunman opened fire on the campus of Virginia Tech University two years ago, it is reported that 40 percent of the student population knew of his presence through telephone text messages before law enforcement officials had even been notified.
And last fall, over 150,000 young people used Facebook to communicate to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty their displeasure with a proposed new law about graduated licensing, which resulted in the law being rescinded. The sword used to be mighty, then it was the pen and now it is the little mouse!
It is fair to say that the internet has grown so quickly that the law is having trouble keeping up. Whether you embrace these technologies or not, it is important to understand the privacy issues at play, and to know what the consequences of social networking can be.
Firstly, there is no privacy. Anyone in Ontario following the recent murder trial of the accused ‘MT’ in the case of the homicide of 14-year old Stefanie Rengel, will know that the prosecution entered into evidence more that 14,000 recovered MSN chat conversations between MT and her boyfriend, the co-accused. Canada’s Privacy Commissioner advises everyone on her website that sending an email is basically the same as sending a postcard for the whole world to see. And private e-mails or other communications that you send from a computer at work are the property of your employer, and are not private at all. Any IT professional or internet service provider can recover any communication you have sent, even if you have deleted it.
Facebook compounds all these privacy concerns through its social networking function. Facebook users have friends who have friends who have friends … with the end result that any individual is easily traceable, along with photos and comments and postings from others. These photos and comments may not be flattering. Also, everything posted on Facebook becomes the property of Facebook and even though you might delete something from your Facebook page, it is never really deleted.
It has been common practice for some time for employers to use Facebook as a recruitment tool. More recently, employers are using it as a tool to assist in employee dismissal. Employers can determine how much time a person is spending on Facebook (thus determining the amount of time the employee is stealing from the employer!). Facebook can reveal unsavoury characteristics of an employee which can lead to dismissal, even if the characteristics or behaviour are exhibited while away from the workplace. Employees have also been dismissed for compromising the confidentiality and proprietary nature of company information in Facebook postings.
All of this is quite sobering. We believe that social media such as texting, MSN messenger, Facebook, Twitter and Myspace have tremendous potential as communication and marketing tools, if used wisely, and may also have direct and valuable applications in sport. But caution is urged. As well, the newness of these technologies means that those of us well along in our sport careers have not had to worry about the legal downside of our personal lives being put on display for the entire world to see. Young people embarking on their professional life, however, may find their employment careers derailed, or taking a turn they did not expect.
CHECK OUT NEW ARTICLES POSTED ON OUR WEBSITE Lately we have been tracking statistics for use of our web site and the results are surprising in a number of areas. Firstly, we have lots of traffic. Secondly, this traffic comes and typically stays. And thirdly, the most popular part of our web site is the ‘Writings’ section, where we publish articles and reports that we have written.
So, to help our visitors, we are making a concerted effort to keep adding to Writings. Recently, we have added: · Our ‘Problem Person’ piece, first published in our newsletter a few years ago. What should you do when 1 percent of your members cause you 99 percent of your problems? · Lessons on appeals and · Lessons on athlete selection, drawing from our experiences in 2008 before the Beijing Olympic Games. · An article on conflict of interest, which we describe as the sport organization’s ‘achilles heel’. This was published in the current issue of Coaches Plan. · Staying on the lookout for fraud - important as registration time for summer sports programs begins and volunteers are dealing with large amounts of cash. · Do You know Who Your Members Are? This is a lengthy feature that goes to the heart of your bylaws and jurisdictional authority over members. We have tried to share what we have learned over the years about clarifying your contract with your members, so you as a sport organization are in a better position to manage your relationship with them, and · A review of a great new book on leadership. READER SURVEY - WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
The Centre for Sport and Law wants to know your views so that we can serve you better through our consulting services, educational workshops and writings. Our survey is quick, and if you care to identify yourself in the survey, we will enter your name in a draw to win a copy of our 2008 book, Legal Issues in Sport - Tools and Techniques for the Sport Manager. Click here to complete the survey.
Keep visiting our website, and refer your friends.
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