In my last blog, I commented on the Facebook phenomenon and concluded by recommending that employers address expectations with respect to Facebook and other aspects of Internet use by instituting appropriate policies.
On the subject of such policies, only a few days after that blog, the Ontario Court of Appeal rendered an interesting decision with respect to a high school teacher who maintained on his school laptop pornographic pictures of a Grade 10 student.
Being on the mature side of 40 (by over a decade) I am not someone who is compelled to log on to Facebook every waking moment; however, there are many millions in Canada and around the world who find Facebook irresistible. The lure of Facebook poses at least two problems for employers…
In my last blog entry, I expressed my bewilderment at the fact that, although employers in Canada spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year negotiating and administering very detailed collective agreements which cover less than 1/3 of the Canadian workforce, a relatively small percentage of employees who are in positions senior to the unionized employees, or who work in a totally non-unionized environment, have any written employment agreements. In that blog, I urged employers to utilize an “ounce of prevention” and make use of such agreements rather than incurring significant legal costs later.
Occasionally, I have heard some clients (of other lawyers, of course, never my own) complain about the costs of litigation. In the employment context, there is a simple remedy – use properly drafted Employment Agreements and avoid a trip to the courthouse!
