First published on Tuesday, August 13, 2024
Last updated on Tuesday, August 13, 2024
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Welcome to HR Heartbeat, where we give you a rundown of the week's top employment law stories. Stay on the pulse of current trends impacting your business, plus get up-to-the-minute commentary on all things HR and legal.
Do you have control over your company's social media?
Many businesses rely on social media platforms to enhance their product marketing, recruit top talent, and monetize engagement through content or product promotion.
It's common for employees, with suitable skillsets, to be hired solely to handle social media accounts. They may take on roles like a social media manager or coordinator. But without well-drafted contracts and a straightforward termination process, ownership of social media platforms, creations, and copyrights can become a costly headache for employers.
If you're wondering how to make sure the ownership of your company's social media presence is never called into question, here are a few things you must make clear to the employee and outline in their contracts:
- Employment contract clauses: A well-drafted contract should define company property and employee developments and assign Rights (ownership) to Works (creations).
- Company property: Make it clear that all materials (hardware, software) created during employment are company property. Employees must surrender all company property, including social media login information, upon the end of employment.
- Employee developments: All works (e.g., social media content) created by the employee during employment are owned by the Company (e.g., social media videos or content).
- Assignment of rights: Employees must assign all rights, titles, and interests in their works to the company without further compensation, including copyrights, patents, and other intellectual property rights.
You need professionally drafted contracts and policies to control your business accounts. Our library of HR and health & safety contracts—BrightBase—protects clients from intellectual property ownership disputes and ensures outgoing employees surrender all company property and have no claim to intellectual property created during employment (e.g., social media accounts).
Compliance deadline to implement pay equity
Pay equity is a major topic in today's world of work.
The federal Pay Equity Act, which came into effect on August 31, 2021, to help address the gender pay gap in Canada instructs federally regulated businesses with 10 or more employees to develop and implement a Pay Equity Plan by August 31, 2024.
According to the Pay Equity Commission, all federally regulated employers must create and evaluate job classes, determine their predominance, calculate and compare compensation, and post a final plan by September 3, 2024. However, employers should note that the legislated deadline is August 31, 2024.
Whether you're a federally regulated workplace or not, it's best practice to make sure you're compensating your staff fairly for the work they do. Not paying employees fairly can decrease employee morale and productivity. Read our article on equal pay for equal work for more insights on this topic.
B.C. healthcare workers must now disclose immunization status
Effective from July 26, 2024, British Columbia's government requires all healthcare workers in public facilities to disclose their immunization status for COVID-19, influenza, and other critical vaccines related to preventable diseases. This new mandate follows the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency.
Unvaccinated workers may face masking, modified duties, or exclusion from work. Additionally, workers must report vaccination or previous infection status for diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, whooping cough, and chickenpox. This data will now be consistently collected through a provincial registry.
For more information about monitoring employee's immunization status in the workplace, ask Bright BrAInbox,
"Can I ask for proof of Covid vaccination status as part of the hiring process?"
"Can I dismiss someone for not having the Covid vaccine?"
Employees might have a claim for privacy rights under the Charter
In a recent case between the York Region District School Board v. Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that searching an employee's work laptop may be an unreasonable interference with their privacy rights under section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Two teachers were disciplined after their principal accessed a document on their personal Gmail accounts using employer-owned computers. The document was keeping a log of other employees.
The teachers' union argued this violated their privacy rights, but a labour arbitrator initially found no breach of privacy.
Section 8 of the Charter protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures, though this is typically used in criminal cases and for employees of public organizations. This case proves that the Charter and Section 8 can apply to civil cases, like employment law disputes.
The Supreme Court said that if the employer has a policy stating that any data stored on employer-issued hardware belongs to the employer, employees might expect less privacy when using an employer's computer. However, employees have a higher expectation of privacy if the employer allows them to use work laptops for personal use.
That's it for today! Come back next time for more HR news so you stay ahead of major employment law changes.
