Canadian HR Reporter

pM40065782 Ro9496 March 9, 2015 INSIDE OUT OF OFFICE IS ON Admit it: You're sick of winter (unless you're in B.C.). Your employees could use a vacation Changing its act Changes coming to Ontario's employment standards laws page 3 Racist rant Termination of City of Edmonton worker upheld page 5 Private weakness Does public sector treat women, minorities better? page 9 page 10 roBotics > pg. 13 should > pg. 8 employers > pg. 13 Emplo y ment Law Today Canad a ian www.employmentlawtoday.com www.EmploymentLawToday.com Expert opinions from the best employment lawyers in Canada CELT1504-2015 ad.indd 1 2015-01-09 11:07 AM rise of the robots Investment in robots is expected to grow 10 per cent each year – so how will that reshape the workforce? By Liz BeRnieR the Year 2025 won't neces- sarily be the year your workplace turns into an episode of e Jetsons — with humanoid robots able to perform complex and varied tasks and "speak" via verbal interfacing — but we will see the adoption of advanced robots boosting busi- ness productivity by up to 30 per cent in many industries. at's according to new Boston Consulting Group research, which also found robots will lower labour costs by 18 per cent or more in countries that are early adopters, including the United States, Japan, China and Germany. " e cost equation relative to the performance opportunities is reaching an infl ection point, and that's allowing many companies to start to take advantage of robotics and automation where they may not have in the past," said Mike Zinser, a Chicago-based partner at Boston Consulting Group and co-author of the research report. As with any new technology, there will be a slower ramp-up period followed by an infl ection point, and a steep upward curve in adoption of that technology, said Zinser. "We're starting to hit that in- flection point today. So we're likely to be on a steep curve for probably the next 10 years or so — 2025 is kind of the magic number we've looked at in our research," he said. "You'll see a considerable ramp- up, from growth today of two to three per cent a year in robot pur- chases and installations to 10 per cent growth year over year for the next decade." Having robots in the workplace isn't anything new for industries Nestle CEO Paul Bulcke interacts with a robot named "Pepper" after a year-end conference at the company's headquarters in Vevey, Switz., on Feb. 19. Nestle began using the robots in December to help sell its coffeemakers at electronics stores across Japan, becoming the first corporate customer for the chatty, bug-eyed androids unveiled last year by tech conglomerate SoftBank. Credit: Denis Balibouse (Reuters) health-care privacy breaches highlight staff challenges Better training, reporting required to curtail employee misbehaviour, says privacy commissioner By SaRaH doBSon it haPPened in the fall of 2014 and then, surprisingly, again in early 2015 — the private health records of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, suff ering from stom- ach cancer, were breached in four separate incidents in at least three hospitals. It's not just high-profi le citizens facing invasion of privacy — work- ers at Rouge Valley Health System in Ontario, for example, allegedly used or disclosed the personal health information of mothers for the purposes of selling or market- ing registered education savings plans (RESPs). And the Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA) investigated incidents involving two employees who breached the privacy of 112 individuals. So why do employees act this way? And are these types of in- cidents on the rise? e answers may not be clearcut, but more needs to be done to avoid further violations, say experts. "To the extent that hospitals or other organizations are moving towards shared electronic records, there's certainly the possibility that this will be an increasing issue," said Brian Beamish, acting com- missioner for the Offi ce of the In- formation and Privacy Commis- sioner of Ontario (IPC). " ere's defi nitely a need for improvement. I take the point that we don't want to over react... I think though to the extent that patients feel that their records are not secure, there may be a diminishment of support for the records or a lack of trust in the records and... that's a bad thing." The price tag attached to breaches could be astronomical. Last month, the Ontario Court of Appeal greenlighted a privacy class-action lawsuit against the Peterborough Regional Health Authority for unauthorized access to personal health information. " e court has signalled that health information custodians may face signifi cant civil exposure a little something on the side When can an employer limit or prevent workers from moonlighting? By Liz BeRnieR ManY eMPLoYees see the value in having a side gig: Supple- mental income, skill development, networking in their industry and — for some — the ability to do it all from the comfort of home. Some employers, however, are less than pleased to fi nd employ- ees' attentions are divided. But or- ganizations should handle moon- lighting with caution, judging by a recent case. In Carter v. 1657593 Ontario Inc., a restaurant manager got into hot water after buying a stake in a new bar. e restaurant own- ers were concerned the manager would use his connections to get bulk inventory deals for the bar or potentially steal customers away from the restaurant. ey termi- nated the employee — a decision later found to be wrongful dis- missal. ey were ordered to pay the manager 20 months' salary. "Generally, (our) courts hesi- tate to restrict employees unduly from gaining employment else- where," said Katherine Ford, an employment lawyer at Sherrard Kuzz in Toronto. "Particularly in a world where it seems more and more jobs may be part-time, more contract-based... it's often a reality that employees might have em- ployment with another employer."

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