Eclipse has a java compiler setting called \"field declaration hides another field or variable\" that can be set to warning/error.
How important is this warning in
This is a very useful option in my opinion and should be enabled to show a compiler warning. There is an option (in my version at least Eclipse 3.5.2, Java EE feature 1.2.2) to further enable/disable it within constructors and getters/setters to prevent false positives.
I'd say that you just disable this warning - it seems no use in your convention. And no wonder it is ignored by default.
I keep these set to "Error". If a class and its parent both have a field of the same name I don't want to lose any of my time trying to figure out why I seem to be assigning a value to the field yet it never seems to change!