Surveillance in the Workplace

Workplace privacy is an evolving and somewhat muddy area of law. In Ontario, our key employment law statutes, the Employment Standards Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Act, are silent on the issue of privacy. Yet surveillance is ubiquitous. Employers often have cameras in the workplace, which end up providing them information about their employees, whether they were seeking it or not. Employers and employees often wonder, is this legal?

PIPEDA and Video Surveillance

The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPIEDA) is a privacy law that applies to private-sector organizations across Canada that collect, use or disclose personal information in the course of commercial activity. PIPIEDA defines a commercial activity as any particular transaction, act, or conduct, or any regular course of conduct that is of a commercial character, including the selling, bartering or leasing of donor, membership or other fundraising lists.

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How to go to the bathroom at work

Bathroom breaks come up frequently in news stories about workers’ rights. The City of Hamilton just narrowly avoided a transit strike where bathroom breaks were a major issue. A City of Ottawa transit worker, calling himself a “whistle-blower” also recently spoke about lack of “recovery time” for drivers – aka not enough time to go to the bathroom between bus runs. Ottawa City Transit workers currently have three minutes per hour for “recovery” although drivers say that the routes are so tightly timed that they rarely are able to take those three minutes. In addition to transit jobs, lack of time for bathroom breaks is also something we see come up for workers on continuous production lines or warehouse workers. So what’s the law on time to go to the bathroom?

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Know Your Legal Obligations for Co-Op Students

Cooperative education programs have become a crucial part of the educational experience as students and institutions recognize that on the job training enhances the overall educational experience. A good co-op can ground a student’s in-class learning by introducing them to practical “real world” problems. If the placement goes well, students may be offered a job with the company or provided a positive reference in their industry! It is no wonder that students flock to this option when it is available.  

What Does an Employer Get Out of It?

Employers stand to benefit the most from co-op placements because they acquire a cost-effective human resource that can support their team during peak periods and offer a fresh perspective. Employers can also claim the Ontario Co-operative Education Tax Credit, which offers the employer a credit of up to $3,000 per student, per work term (on average, work terms are 4 months long). Eligible employers can file a Schedule 550 with their tax return in order to receive the credit.

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Will Saving Provisions No Longer Save Us?

Saving provisions are widely used in employment agreements to ensure that even if a decision-maker finds that some aspect of some clause is not enforceable due to the fact that it could possibly, maybe, one day, maybe, sorta violate the Employment Standards Act (ESA), the saving provision will communicate to that judge that this was not the employer’s intention to do so. 

A saving provision did not work for the employer in the recent case of Groves v. UTS Consultants Inc., 2019 ONSC 5605. The contract, in this case, violated a few parts of the ESA and the contract’s saving provision did not do its job of saving! 

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Ministry of Labour Inspections

The Ministry of Labour (MOL or the Ministry) has been busy implementing its Healthy and Safe Ontario Workplaces Strategy. Introduced by the previous Wynne government, the initiative has focused on small Ontario industrial businesses. A small business is one with fewer than 50 workers. 

Occupational Health and Safety Act Inspections

In late August, the Ministry published a report on the results of the inspection initiative. During the period April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019, the Ministry of Labour visited 3,942 small business workplaces and issued 13,907 orders and requirements under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA). They also issued 184 stop-work orders.

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Another One Bites the Dust – Mass Closures and Employer Responsibilities to Employees

Another large fashion retailer has fallen out of style with consumers, closing its doors for good across Canada. Last Sunday, Bradley Sell, the Chief Financial Officer of the Canadian subsidiary Forever XXI ULC (“Forever 21 Canada”), announced that all 44 of its Canadian stores would be closing. Sell cited economic viability as the primary reason for the Canadian closures. Approximately 2,000 employees will lose their jobs as a result. The Ontario Superior Court has granted the company protection from its creditors under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA).

ESA Requirement Upon Mass-Termination

While filing for bankruptcy can offer an employer an opportunity to restructure its operations without the looming specter of insurmountable debt, bankruptcy is not a “get out of jail free card” for employers.  In Ontario, under the Employment Standards Act (the “ESA”) employers must provide enhanced benefits to employees who have been terminated via a “mass termination.”

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