Arbitrators should apply ‘privacy spectrum’ to personal information
The names of people involved in labour arbitration should be disclosed with the arbitrator’s decisions, unless there are compelling reasons not to do so, according to the open-court principle and the public’s interest. The British Columbia Labour Relations Board affirmed the law in a recent review of an arbitrator’s decision. The board also affirmed arbitrators’ discretion to disclose or withhold personal information under the Labour Relations Code and Personal Information Protection Act.
The case arose when a unionized employee was disciplined and the union grieved the punishment. The employee sought to have his name left out from the arbitrator’s decision-or anonymized by using only his initials. The union presented a number of arguments for why grievors’ and witnesses’ names should not be published in arbitration decisions:
- The open court principle does not apply to labour arbitrators, because labour arbitrators are primarily a private dispute mechanism
- Privacy legislation is quasi-constitutional
Privacy class action to proceed
Canada will see its first class action lawsuit based on the new tort of invading another’s privacy, after a Bank of Nova Scotia employee leaked customers’ personal information to his girlfriend for personal gain. At least 138 customers were subsequently defrauded. Ontario’s Superior Court accepted that the employer was vicariously liable for the employee’s actions and certified the class of 643 customers whose files the employee had accessed and potentially leaked.
Intrusion upon seclusion
Intruding upon a person’s seclusion means intentionally or recklessly invading her or his private affairs without justification, causing the person distress, humiliation or anguish. This tort of intrusion upon seclusion is only a recent creation. In 2012:
… Continue reading “Privacy class action to proceed”The Ontario Court of Appeal reversed an established principle that there is no such thing as a tort of invasion of privacy… the Court decided that it was now appropriate to confirm the existence of a tort of invasion
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