Is employee conduct or disciplinary standings protected information in B.C.?

November 16, 2012 2:28 PM

[YANML] Are private sector managers in British Columbia restricted in what they can discuss amongst themselves with regards to employee's conduct or disciplinary actions taken as a result?

I understand that PIPA protects employee confidentiality around "personal information", which very clearly covers things such as health information and financials. However I'm much less clear on whether anything limits the disclosure/discussion of employee conduct, especially within a given organization. PIPA would seem by my reading to exclude it as being part of the unprotected "work product information." However, it could be argued that information about disciplinary action is personal in nature.

I was not able to find anything addressing this in the Canadian Labour Standards regulation. Can anyone point me to applicable law/regulation/rulings around this, or publicly documented (specific) best practice?

posted by pahalial to Law & Government (1 answer total)

Best answer: Usually, records about disciplinary action, performance reviews and other similar recorded information is personal employee information and is protected. Which means that it should only be shared in contexts that are appropriate to maintain, manage, or terminate a relationship with an employee or potential employee. Therefore if you apply for a job with manager A but currently work with manager B, it may be appropriate for the manager A to discuss that sort of information with manager B to determine your suitability for the job with manager A. On the other hand, if manager A and B are just chatting about you to gossip, that's not an acceptable use.

However, I work in Alberta's PIPA, which while similar to BC's is not identical. You may want to look at the definitions of personal employee information in the text of the BC Act itself as well as the rules governing what organizations can do with employee information or look to the resources provided by the BC Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner.
posted by Kurichina at 3:06 PM on November 16, 2012