Yes, you gotta give SGI the dates and I’ll give you 3 reasons why:
1. Unlike Alberta, BC and Quebec, Sask doesn’t have a provincial law establishing personal privacy rights of employees in the workplace–although if you’re federally regulated, you would be subject to the employee privacy protections under the federal PIPEDA law.
2. Even if PIPEDA workplace privacy laws applied, dates of employment are not protected personal information.
3. Even if PIPEDA applied and the ex-employee start and end dates were protected, you’d still have to provide the info to a government agency like SGI that lawfully requests the information to perform its legal functions, even without the ex-employee’s consent.
CAVEAT: While giving SGI the dates is fine, what CAN get you into trouble is providing personal info about the ex-employee that SGI neither needs nor requests. In other words, keep the disclosure limited to the purpose at hand and don’t give them the entire employment file.
Hope that helps. Enjoy the holiday. Glenn
