Passing off, Plagarism and Airport breaks

A column by Matt McCarten in the NZ Herald has a big bold statement from the editor plastered at the start this week. This statement says:

Matt McCarten's column was remarkably similar to a column by John Minto which ran in the Christchurch Press the following day. The columns, about a dispute at Auckland airport over staff breaks, were written after a briefing by Unite director Mike Treen who employs Minto and who reports to McCarten. An urgent family matter meant McCarten was out of town last week so discussed his column by phone with a Unite worker, who eventually penned the column. The worker used Minto's column as a base for the work, believing it to be a background briefing on the airport issue.

But all is well...

The Herald on Sunday has accepted McCarten's apologies for what he says was an honest mistake and has reiterated the requirement for all columns to be wholly his own work.

That must be quite embarrassing. Not only was McCarten's aide caught out for plagiarism, but McCarten himself was caught out getting the union to write his articles. Now realistically I know that some busy commentators must get their staff to do this all the time, but to be caught out is quite hilarious.

And for comparison, the article from the Press.

Its not just that some of the facts are the same, so is most of the opinion and the suggestions to take Phil O'Reilly out to lunch.

And on the article (or is that articles?), if it is true then that is pretty bad on the airport's part. But I agree with Phil, I don't really think legislation is the answer, if an employer really wants to avoid giving breaks then there will always be ways to get around the law (such as reducing shifts etc). Legislation is a blunt instrument and an effective way to ensure breaks while closing loopholes like reducing shifts it would probably cause more harm then good. As Phil said "Inflexible rules advantaged unions, not employees or workplaces".

I shall try and find the legislation that was apparently passed, or is to be passed, and take a look at what it says.