This paper covers three topics: an overview of the existing privacy legislation as at April 2005, strategies for dealing with privacy issues in the workplace including investigations, monitoring and surveillance, employee access to information requests and references; and recent developments in federal and provincial courts, privacy commissions and arbitration proceedings.

Privacy legislation attempts to balance two competing interests: employees’ right to privacy, and employers’ need to collect, use and disclose employees’ personal information for reasonable purposes, i.e., employee recruitment, management and termination. To ensure the proper balance exists, employees must usually consent before their personal information may be collected, used or disclosed by the employer.

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