Video Surveillance In The Workplace: Limits On Employer Rights

A grievance arbitration tribunal recently ruled1 on whether it was legal for a federally regulated Canadian employer, a public transit authority, to install 27 video cameras in and around its workplace. While the tribunal affirmed that the majority of the cameras were legal, it ordered some of the ones installed inside the employer's facilities to be removed.

The facts

The Société de transport de l'Outaouais (STO) is a public transit authority that provides bus services in the Gatineau and Ottawa area. In 2007 it was chosen to benefit from a federal government program to beef up the security of urban transit operations in Canada. Experts were engaged to carry out a risk assessment and a security plan for the STO's facilities was devised. This resulted in the STO implementing a number of measures, including mandatory security and terrorism training for employees, erection of a new security fence, introduction of a system of access cards for employees, and a video surveillance system. Cameras installed outside the building were intended to detect trespassers, identify unauthorized vehicles and track the movements of the STO's bus fleet. Other cameras were installed inside the building. All employees were informed of the measures by means of an email as well as a slideshow aired over the local television network.

The 27 cameras were connected to a viewing system that allowed the captured images to be kept for 30 to 40 days. Photographs could also be created from the footage, printed and kept.

The cameras operated on a continuous basis. They did not afford panoramic views of the site, but could be moved manually to zero in on particular locations, and had high zoom capability. While the objective sought in installing the cameras was not the imposition of disciplinary or administrative measures, the evidence showed that they could be used for that purpose and that on one occasion, viewing of video footage had resulted in disciplinary action being taken.

The analysis

The tribunal noted that a determination of whether the surveillance cameras were legal required an assessment of the parties' respective interests, pointing out that in accordance with the collective agreement, the employer was obliged to treat its employees with "consideration" and was entitled to issue directives, among other things for purposes of "maintaining security." The tribunal went on to apply the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act ("PIPEDA") and...