Tag Archives: 2015 cupe national convention

Legal brief: CUPE wins award for member after employer breached privacy rules | Canadian Union of Public Employees

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As many CUPE activists know, privacy rights continue to be an important issue in our workplaces. CUPE is actively defending our members’ privacy rights at work, and we recently won an important arbitration decision.

A member working as a dietary aide with two different long-term care employers in Ontario needed an accommodation at one of the two locations. Management from the two facilities got in touch with each other, and ultimately one manager emailed a doctor’s note that the worker had submitted to the manager at the other employer. The worker was not consulted about the sharing of her private medical information, and did not give consent.

In this case, the collective agreement included a definition of personal harassment, and the arbitrator agreed with CUPE that sharing the doctor’s note without the worker’s permission was personal harassment and a breach of the collective agreement. The arbitrator understood that the workplace was supposed to be respectful, and the importance of preserving workers’ dignity. She decided that sharing the worker’s medical information without permission was disrespectful and offensive.

When the employer breached the member’s privacy and personally harassed her, it also breached Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act. Section 63 of that Act says that when an employer gets custody of employee medical information, they must treat that information as confidential, and employers are prohibited from trying to get access to a worker’s medical records without the worker’s permission, unless they have an order from an arbitrator or a court.

The employer also breached the worker’s privacy rights under common law. The courts have found that it is a breach of the law for one person to intentionally, and with no “lawful justification” invade the private affairs or concerns of another person if a reasonable person would regard the invasion as “highly offensive” and causing distress, humiliation and anguish. The arbitrator said that when they shared the member’s doctor’s note without her consent, the employer broke the bond of trust that requires an employer to safeguard private medical information that it has received.

For these breaches, the arbitrator decided that the worker was entitled to damages of $1,000. The amount is five per cent of the maximum award for breaching privacy rights set out by the Ontario Court of Appeal. The arbitrator wanted to make clear that there were consequences for the employer’s wrongdoing. She also took into consideration that the employer had a privacy policy which was supposed to protect both residents and employees, but hadn’t done anything to make sure their contractors lived up to that policy, even after they found out what the manager had done.

Source: Legal brief: CUPE wins award for member after employer breached privacy rules | Canadian Union of Public Employees

Corporations are looking to profit from social services | 2015 CUPE National Covention

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A new form of privatization is pushing private sector involvement in social services like housing, child care and employment services.

CUPE researchers Graham Cox and Sarah Ryan used a noon-hour speakers’ corner talk to expose social impact bonds as the latest way corporations are looking to profit from public services.

Private, for-profit financing is at the heart of these schemes. While social services are currently directly publicly funded by tax dollars, corporations and consultants want to profit from the distribution of those funds.

A social impact bond inserts a group of financiers and consultants between the government and the public service it delivers, said Cox. The private sector is guaranteed the money it fronts to provide the service, plus a hefty profit – up to 40% in one example Cox cited – if certain consultant-set targets are met.

In the case of an early childhood education project in Chicago, that means corporations are guaranteed $9,100 per year for every child from the program who does not need special education. This creates the motivation to deny children with special needs access to the program, in order to boost the results.

The motivation to make a profit distorts service delivery priorities and what is defined as a successful outcome, said Ryan, speaking about the for-profit project in Chicago.

“Consultants, evaluators, bankers are now deciding what services to provide, where those services should be provided, and who can access them. It’s no longer the common good as the overriding consideration,” she said.

Canadian Union of Postal Workers National President Mike Palecek was invited to kick off the talk by giving an update on the fight to stop cuts and privatization at Canada Post. He described how CUPW made door-to-door delivery a major issue in the federal election.

Palecek outlined the fight ahead to keep pressure on the new Liberal government to roll back the cuts that have already been made, now that Canada Post has halted its plans.

Learn more about social impact bonds at cupe.ca/privatization and citizenspress.org/social-impact-bonds.

Source: Corporations are looking to profit from social services | Canadian Union of Public Employees

Health and safety forum discusses strategies for dealing with psychological injury | 2015 CUPE National Convention

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November 4, 2015

Yesterday evening, at the health and safety forum, CUPE members heard two experts, exchanged ideas and received tools and advice for a better understanding of the causes of stress, its effects on our health, and ways to prevent it.

Julie Kaisla, from the Canadian Mental Health Association’s British Colombia Division talked about the different psychological wounds caused by excessively heavy workloads, as well as some general strategies for reducing the effects of stress.

The participants also heard Cassie Loveless, Paramedic/Emergency Medical Dispatcher at BC Ambulance Service. Ms. Loveless told members about her personal experience with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the ways that she deals with this “silent” illness. She explained various strategies to prevent the escalation of psychological injury.

CUPE health and safety advisors described the tools and resources available to members to help them understand and prevent psychological injury. A new violence prevention kit produced by the CUPE Health and Safety Service was also launched at the forum. In addition to useful information on the prevention of violence and harassment in the workplace, the kit contains tools such as a form letter to the employer for reporting violent incidents, an information sheet on working alone, a bargaining guide on domestic violence in the workplace, and various other documents.

In accordance with the mandate conferred by delegates to the 2013 CUPE National Convention, the Union Development Department, in conjunction with the Health and Safety Service, created a new series of courses on health and safety, which was launched at the forum.

The forum ended with a Q & A session with a moderator and a round table on the prevention of stress in the workplace.

Source: Health and safety forum discusses strategies for dealing with psychological injury | Canadian Union of Public Employees