For legal and ethical reasons, employers ought to come clean with their employees about their reason for using monitoring software.
This month, Ontario became the first province in Canada to enact electronic monitoring legislation. The Working for Workers Act will require organizations with 25 or more employees to disclose their technology to monitor their workforce and explain how it is used. The law is likely to shine a light on the growing use of surveillance technology in the workplace.
Bill 88 passed with little fanfare earlier this year, but companies had to scramble to get ready. Under the new rules, they must publish a written policy on electronic monitoring as part of the Employment Standards Act. The law doesn't define electronic monitoring, so any software or network program that tracks employee data must be disclosed.
"There's inadvertent innocent tracking," says Lisa Stam, managing partner of SpringLaw, a boutique employment firm. "Companies are collecting data without knowing it. You have company phones, fobs, and other things that automatically collect the data. Some companies went through a cyber attack, hired someone to help, and now those new systems are collecting data. There is a huge amount of work to be done to comply with Bill 88."
All of this comes at a time when the workplace is changing. After working remotely through the pandemic, many employees are reluctant to return to the office. Last year global accounting firm PwC announced...
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