Under the Working for Workers’ Act, every covered Ontario employer with twenty-five or more employees is now required to have a written electronic monitoring policy that complies with Part XI.1 of the Employment Standards Act, 2000.

The electronic monitoring rules do not limit how an employer may engage in electronic monitoring of Ontario-based employees; however, they require an employer to indicate the following in its written policy:

1. whether the employer engages in electronic monitoring;

2. if so, what form(s) of electronic monitoring the employer engages in and what circumstances it monitors employees; and

3. what potential use(s) the employer will make of the information that is gathered through electronic monitoring.

Part XI.1 of the Employment Standards Act, 2000 does not define what “electronic monitoring” means. However, the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development’s guidance indicates that the policy should list “all forms of employee and assignment employee monitoring that is done electronically” and gives the examples of GPS tracking, electronic sensors, and tracking of websites/network traffic. The policy must cover monitoring conducted through electronic devices or equipment issued to employees as well as monitoring that occurs in the workplace (which could include home work spaces—e.g., monitoring employees who are accessing company networks from home computers or devices). Employers that do not engage in electronic...

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