Managing Employment Law Issues in the Digital Age: Data Ownership, Privacy and Social Media

Faculty Agenda Download Brochure PDF

How do you balance employees’ legal rights to privacy and freedom from harassment with the employer’s rights of ownership in business information? What kinds of online activity can and should attract disciplinary action or raise the prospect of termination? And how are HR processes ‒ from the drafting of policies, protocols and employment contracts to workplace investigations and offboarding ‒ changing to reflect the new reality?

Top experts will provide up-to-date insights and practical guidance on issues, including:

• Employee privacy rights and interests: where to draw the line?
• Effective policies balancing employee’s rights with the employer’s ownership rights and business interests
• Who owns the content posted on professional social media sites such as LinkedIn?
• How to make non-solicitation covenants enforceable in an online/borderless world
• Social media companies’ rights and powers over data
• Quick-response crisis management in the age of social media
• Online harassment/misconduct: what warrants discipline or termination?
• The impact of online evidence on the conduct of workplace investigations

Including Case study: An employee has posted, tweeted or emailed a disastrous comment – now what?

Faculty

Chairs

• Matthew Sammon, Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP
• Lisa Stam, Koldorf Stam LLP

• Timothy M. Banks, Dentons Canada LLP
• Keri Bush, Privacy Director, Canada and International, Legal, Corporate & Compliance Group, BMO Financial Group
• Ian M. Campbell, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
• Allyson M. Fischer, Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie LLP
• Eli. S. Lederman, Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP
• Kevin Lo, Managing Director Froese Forensic Partners Ltd.
• Stuart E. Rudner, Rudner MacDonald LLP
• Hena Singh, Singh Lamarche LLP
• Joann Sochor, AVP, Corporate Compliance, Sun Life Financial
• Lisa K. Talbot, Torys LLP
• Rachel Turnpenney, TurnpenneyMilne LLP
• Dena N. Varah, Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP

Agenda

• Managing Employment Law Issues in the Digital Age: Data Ownership, Privacy and Social Media

  Original Date: April 20, 2015

  Expand All Collapse All

  • 8:30 am
    Registration and Continental Breakfast
  • 9:00 am
    Chairs’ Welcome and Introduction
  • 9:05 am
    Employee Privacy Rights and Interests: Where is the Line?

    Keri Bush, Privacy Director, Canada and International Legal, Corporate & Compliance Group, BMO Financial Group
    Ian Campbell, Fasken Martineau LLP
    Lisa Stam, Koldorf Stam LLP
    Lisa Talbot, Torys LLP

    • Privacy rights in employer-owned devices and in employee-owned devices used for work
    • Post-Cole: to what extent does the law protect employee expectations of privacy? And what are the implications for HR departments?
    • The practical impact of millennial/younger employees’ attitudes and expectations
    • TEffective, enforceable policies: how to balance employee privacy rights with the employer’s ownership rights and business interests
    • Employees’ ability to sue for invasion of privacy
  • 10:30 am
    Refreshment Break
  • 10:45 am
    Ownership and Control Over Data on Employees’ LinkedIn and Other Professional Social Media Sites

    Eli. S. Lederman, Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP
    Joann Sochor, AVP Corporate Compliance, Sun Life Financial

    • Who owns the content posted on social media sites?
    • Determining proprietary rights in an open-source world
    • Distinguishing between the employee’s personal network and the company’s proprietary information
    • Are LinkedIn connections just the new Rolodex?
    • User agreements between employees and their social media platforms: can the employer “insert itself” without being a party to the agreement?
    • Should the employer enter into social media participation agreements with sales staff and other employees? How enforceable are these?
  • 11:15 am
    Non-Solicitation Covenants in a "Borderless World"

    Allyson M. Fischer, Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie LLP
    Dena Varah, Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP

    Traditionally, the scope of restrictive covenants is geographically limited; but the rise of an online world tends to make geography irrelevant. The increasing mobility of both companies and employees adds a further complication. This session addresses the challenges of drafting covenants that are both reasonable and enforceable.

  • 12:00 pm
    Luncheon
  • 1:00 pm
    Social Media and Workplace Misconduct: an Update

    Stuart E. Rudner, Rudner MacDonald LLP
    Matthew P. Sammon, Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP

    The session explores the key issues in this area in light of the most current law:

    • What online behaviour constitutes harassment or other misconduct?
    • Deciding when it does or doesn’t pay to consider disciplinary action
    • Off-hours posting on Facebook, Twitter, etc: are the considerations different?
    • Ensuring that your policies comply with human rights legislation
    • The scope of employers’ Bill 168’s obligations to address workplace harassment
    • Competing rights: free speech vs. freedom from workplace discrimination
  • 2:00 pm
    Social Media Crisis Management in the Workplace

    Timothy M. Banks, Dentons Canada LLP
    

    Employees’ use of social media can generate crises that require agile, quick-thinking responses from HR directors and in-house counsel. Get ahead of the risk by knowing what to react to and how to apply the relevant legal principles.

    • The rights and powers of social media companies over data
    • Understanding where employees are posting
    • Dealing with employees’ online recommendations/endorsements for friends
    • Takedown protocols and knowing when it’s worth the battle
      - when and how to interact with online service providers
  • 2:45 pm
    Refreshment Break
  • 3:00 pm
    Workplace Investigations: Dealing with Evidence from Social Media and Other Digital Sources

    Hena Singh, Singh Lamarche LLP
    Kevin Lo, Managing Director, Froese Forensic Partners Ltd.
    Rachel Turnpenney, TurnpenneyMilne LLP

    An employee has posted, tweeted or emailed a disastrous comment: now what? Using a case study approach, our closing session will explore how the principles discussed throughout the day are influencing the process of workplace investigation.
    Issues include: when electronic information not under the employers’ control may be evidence; when to involve your IT people; and making the appropriate judgment calls to avoid the minefields accompanying investigations of online misconduct in the workplace.

  • 4:30 pm
    Program Concludes

Group Discounts

2-3 delegates: 25% off archived program fee
4-10 delegates: 30% off archived program fee
11+ delegates: 35% off archived program fee
Boardroom rates available.

Delivery

The video stream, including link to program materials will be sent to you via email as soon as payment is successfully processed.

Refunds

All sales are final. Please make all enquiries related to program content and CPD/MCLE credit hours prior to purchase. In the event you experience technical difficulties, please contact opdsupport@osgoode.yorku.ca for assistance.