Can Employees Record Work Meetings?

With the rise of remote working in the past couple of years, virtual work meetings, whether over video or phone call, have become a common occurrence. With that comes the issue of recording work calls. In this post, we address the possible risks involved when an employee records work meetings, either surreptitiously or with consent. 

Can an employee legally record a work call?

It is technically legal in Canada for an employee to record a conversation they are a part of, and the employee does not attract criminal liability if they do so surreptitiously, as long as they were a part of the call. However, Courts across Canada have found that surreptitious recording can justify termination for cause. 

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Bill 88: More Changes to the Employment Standards Act

Bill 88 has been receiving a lot of media attention for the aspects related to digital platform workers and the proposed creation of the Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act, 2022. While this will impact many workers, it will not have an impact on most employers. Employers do need to pay attention to other aspects of the Bill, which propose new changes to the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000. Chief among these is a new requirement for employers with 25 employees or more to have a written policy with respect to electronic monitoring of employees.

Electronic Monitoring of Employees

If passed, Bill 88 will require that employers who employ 25 employees or more, on January 1 of any given year, have a written policy with respect to the electronic monitoring of employees. The wording of the Bill suggests that even employers who do not electronically monitor employees will be required to have a written policy, provided they employ 25 employees or more on January 1 of any given year. 

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Who is an Information Technology (IT) Professional in Ontario? And What Rules Apply to Them?

Tech is on the rise. Tech jobs have exploded in number in past years, but especially so since the pandemic. We work with a lot of tech clients, especially tech startups with workforces that are growing exponentially. There are many types of workers who work with tech companies, amongst them information technology (IT) professionals. It is critical for tech companies that employ IT professionals to understand the rights of their workers, especially their IT professional employees, whose employment standards rights are different from those of some other employees. 

How Are an IT Professional’s Rights Different? 

Under O. Reg. 285/01 of Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, 2000 (“ESA”), IT professionals are exempt from the following requirements under the ESA:

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Workplace Law Trends for 2022

Welcome to 2020 Two! It’s hard to believe we’ve been living through a pandemic for nearly 2 years. Workplaces are beyond worn out, stress leaves and harassment complaints continue to increase, parents are juggling remote learning and limited activities for kids once again, and many workplaces struggle to find people to fill the roles. 

Yes, it’s all a bit of a mess, but out of crisis emerge new ways to approach issues and novel solutions to traditional problems. Here are our predictions for workplace law trends and changes in 2022.

#1 – Push for Hybrid and Remote Working

Studies over the last year are showing a deep disconnect between senior bosses and employees about preferred workplaces. Increasingly, employees want – and now expect – at least some remote work option, whereas senior levels of management are more likely to continue to see in-person work better for productivity, mentoring and focus.

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Cast Your Vote! Lisa Stam Nominated for a Changemakers Award!

We are super excited to share that our founder Lisa Stam has been nominated for a Canadian Lawyer Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers “Changemakers Award”!  Lisa has always made it a top priority to make legal services relevant, easy to access & more affordable through tech smarts!

We’d sure appreciate it if you could cast a vote for her – anyone can vote! Please click here.  Voting ends this Friday, June 5.  Thanks so much!

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We’re 3 Today! How We Built Our Virtual Law Firm

I launched SpringLaw 3 years ago. It was on April Fool’s Day 2017 and a friend of mine questioned whether I should delay it by a day so that people would not mistake my launch of a virtual law firm as a joke. My assistant Sandi and I proceeded to launch anyways, figuring we’d be in the clear by noon that day. 

Fast forward to three years later: we are in a very different world. Even before the current virus pandemic, the ease and comfort of communicating and working through tech have moved forward at such a fast clip. 

Over the last few weeks (yes, the virus has only been here for a few weeks!), the world has been forced to face remote working and to engage in the online economy. For those of us already there, it’s been no big deal, but it’s not a system you can just whip up overnight. 

Here are my thoughts on the key ingredients to a successful online law firm.

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