Plant’s Posting of Employee Photos at Workstations ≠ Privacy Violation

A brewery’s new plant optimization scheme involved posting pictures of employees next to their workstations. Employees in the Montreal plant were concerned that having their pictures posted would identify them as being responsible for weak performance of a workstation that may actually have been caused by poor machinery. So the union objected to the posting without the employees’ consent as violating not the collective agreement but the employees’ Charter privacy rights. The arbitrator found no privacy violation and dismissed the grievance. Access to the plant was restricted to employees; and those employees already knew which employee worked at each workstation [Syndicat des travailleuses et travailleurs de la Brasserie Labatt (CSN) et La Brasserie Labatt du Canada S.C.S., 2015 CanLII 7714 (QC SAT), Feb. 2, 2015 (in French)].