Canadian employers using location-tracking against COVID-19 – Global News

Canadian provinces are slowly beginning to reopen businesses and restart their economies. Global News’ Jeff Semple reports that man employees may return to very different workplaces than the ones they left at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition to wearing masks and keeping their distance, some companies are introducing new screening measures.

Global News spoke to Lior Samfiru, an employment lawyer and co-founding partner at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, about an employee’s right to privacy in an era of smartphone technology, tracing apps and COVID-19.

Plexiglass, thermal imaging and tracing apps

When employees arrive at Toyota plants in Ontario, they will be examined for symptoms and scanned by a thermal imaging camera. Those with temperatures above 37.2 C will be flagged. Plexiglass barriers have also been added to numerous areas on the production lines and in cafeterias.

Some companies now require their employees to use an app on their smartphone to trace their movements while they are at work.

Employment lawyer on employee rights and tracking technology

Can my employer make me use a tracking app to monitor my activity at work?

Global News notes that governments in Canada need citizens to “opt-in” and agree to download and use a contact tracing app. Employers, on the other hand, do not.

“Your employer is paying for your time; they are entitled to have information as to where you are and what you’re doing while you’re on the job,” said Toronto employment lawyer Lior Samfiru. “But it has to end there. It cannot extend to beyond work. So any app would have to be disconnected or disabled after work hours.”

Samfiru said it’s also conceivable that employers could decide to use a location tracking app designed for the COVID-19 pandemic for other purposes.

“For example, your employers says: ‘we noticed that between 3 and 4 p.m., you really weren’t doing work. You were chatting with a coworker. So now we’re going to discipline you for that.’”

“With social distancing measures and with the employer’s obligation to keep workless workplaces safe, many more employers are going to be using that technology. And the reality is that once they use it, they may like it and they may consider it to be an important part of the work situation and they may not stop using it even after we’re out of this pandemic. So that may well be the new reality for many employees.”