CONFERENCE Privacy, Law and the Contemporary Workplace: New Challenges and Directions

Friday, November 22, 2013: One King West Hotel, Toronto, Ontario
Registration online or complete and return form below

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AGENDA
The purpose of this conference is to critically examine the development of Canadian workplace privacy law in the face of emerging challenges. New technology has expanded the data available about individual employees and blurred the boundaries between public and private life. Legal changes and the search for competitive advantage present new imperatives for employers to collect and manage data about employees. Key developments include the rapidly expanding use and changing culture of social media, the expansion of video surveillance capabilities in public spaces, changing technologies for detecting substance abuse, new employer responsibilities to ensure safety and security at work, and the growing implementation of early intervention programs to enable injured or otherwise disabled employees to return to work. In addition to charting how the law is responding to these developments, this conference will ask whether the trajectory of the law is consistent with a good theory of and approach to workplace privacy protection, and what we might learn from the experience of other industrialized countries grappling with similar challenges. The conference will present rigorous academic research and expert practitioner insights in a context that is engaging and relevant to policy, practitioner and academic communities. Panels will include paper presentations and commentary. All speakers are confirmed. The agenda is subject to change until finalized. 8:30 am 9:00 am Registration & Breakfast Opening Keynote Elizabeth Denham, Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia

9:45 am

The Legal Nature of Workplace Privacy Rights: Theories and Controversies Professor Matt Finkin, University of Illinois Professor Lisa Austin, University of Toronto Emma Phillips, Sack Goldblatt Mitchell, Toronto Chair: Professor Kevin Banks, Director, Centre for Law in the Contemporary Workplace This panel will consider foundational questions with practical implications for the development of workplace privacy law. What is the purpose of protecting privacy through law? To what extent are workplace privacy rights human rights? How do these purposes apply in the workplace context? What is or should be the relationship between privacy rights and waiver or consent, contractual or otherwise? What capacity do or should unions have to provide such waiver or consent on behalf of those that they represent? Does Canadian workplace law take consistent positions on these questions? Is workplace law consistent with expectations or legal definitions arising out of other aspects of Canadian life? What can we learn from other jurisdictions?

AGENDA (Contd)
11:00 am 11:15 am Break

Searches and Surveillance in the Online Environment: What is Private in a Wired and Wireless World? Professor Christopher Hunt, Thompson Rivers University Professor Corinn Bell, Thompson Rivers University Professor Avner Levin, Ryerson University Mark Contini, Mathews Dinsdale and Clark, Toronto Tim Gleason, Dewart Gleason Chairs: Erin Kuzz, Sherrard Kuzz LLP & Professor Bernie Adell, Queens Law The internet and social media make it possible for individuals to disseminate and for others to gather more information about their personal lives than ever before. At the same time employers have become increasingly sophisticated in their use of personal profiling to hire, retain and promote the most suitable employees. These developments are blurring earlier notions of the private and public domains, off-duty behavior and legitimate employer business interests. When and to what extent are employers entitled to gather such information about employees or job applicants? To what extent should they be? What are reasonable employee expectations of privacy on the internet or in social media? What privacy interests do employees have in employer-provided equipment or spaces such as computers, cell phones, or in their own devices used at work? Do legal constructions of those expectations correspond with lived reality? At what point does information placed on or generated through the internet or social media enter the public domain in fact and in law? What is left of the idea of the idea of a private sphere of off-duty conduct? 12:30 pm 1:30 pm Lunch Searches and Surveillance at Work Professor Michael Lynk, Western University Dan Michaluk, Hicks Morley, Toronto Leo McGrady, McGrady and Associates, Vancouver
Chair: Professor Elizabeth Shilton, Senior Fellow, Centre for Law in the Contemporary Workplace

This panel will explore the limits of employer search and surveillance powers on the job. What privacy interests do employees have in breath or fluid samples, in offices or lockers, or in public spaces? When is an employer search or surveillance legally justified? What is the appropriate balance between ensuring workplace safety, or combatting terrorism, and employee privacy? Can current legal approaches to these questions be reconciled with a good theory of workplace privacy rights?

AGENDA (Contd)
2:45 pm 3:00 pm Break

Access to and Management of Medical, Psychological and Genetic Information Professor Pauline Kim, Washington University, St. Louis Kate Hughes, Cavalluzzo, Shilton, McIntyre and Cornish, Toronto Donna Strong, McInnes Cooper, St. Johns Chair: Professor Wanjiru Njoya, Queens Law Canadian workplace law, like its counterparts in many other jurisdictions, recognizes a range of privacy interests that restrict employer collection of medical, psychological or genetic information. Yet statutory and contractual regimes can also require cooperation based upon information sharing in order to implement effective disability management, benefit cost management, and accommodation systems. How do or should workplace laws mandate and regulate the information sharing necessary to this cooperation? What do they or should they require with respect to the management of this information? 4:20 pm Wrap Up Panel: Whats Coming at Us? Where Should We Be Going? Pamela Chapman, Arbitrator and Mediator, Ottawa Lorne MacDougall, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada Allen Ponak, Arbitrator, Calgary & Saskatoon Chair: Pamela Chapman, Arbitrator and Mediator, Ottawa A panel of eminent adjudicators, researchers and practitioners will reflect on emerging privacy issues, gaps and guidance in Canadian law now facing employers, workers and governments. 5:10 pm Closing Remarks
Special Thanks to our Steering Committee: Jeffrey Andrew, Cavalluzzo Shilton McIntyre Cornish LLP Richard Baldwin, Mathews Dinsdale & Clark LLP Pamela Chapman, University of Ottawa Richard Chaykowski, School of Policy Studies, Queens University Dan Michaluk, Hicks Morley Carman Overholt, Overholt Law Emma Phillips, Sack Goldblatt Mitchell LLP

REGISTRATION FORM Privacy, Law and the Contemporary Workplace: New Challenges and Directions

MEETING VENUE One King West Hotel 1 King Street West Toronto, Ontario M5H 1A1 866-470-5464 HOTEL ROOM A preferred rate of $179/night has been negotiated at the One King West Hotel. Kindly mention Queens University or Group Code 10U91N rate when booking to receive this preferred rate. Available until November 1st, 2013 Reservation phone #: (866) 470-5464 REFUND POLICY Cancellations received in writing prior to November 15th, 2013 will receive a full refund. No refunds will be given after November 15th, 2013. There will be no refunds for no-show registrants. INFORMATION For further information about this conference, please contact the Centre for Law in the Contemporary Workplace a http://law.queensu.ca/lawResearch/clcw.html or 613-533-6000 ext. 79599 or by e-mail at natalie.henne@queensu.ca PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Fridays program may be applied towards 7 of the 9 substantive hours of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) required by the Law Society of Upper Canada. Please note that this program is not accredited for professionalism hours or for the new member requirement.

REGISTRATION Form to be sent by e-mail to natalie.henne@queensu.ca, by fax to (613) 5336509 or to Natalie Moniz-Henne, Faculty of Law, 128 Union Street, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6. Registration Rate: Professional $495+tax

Student $95+tax

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