As remote and hybrid work have normalized digital tracking (keystroke logs, GPS, email and productivity monitoring), Ontario introduced rules requiring employers to be transparent about it. If you’ve ever wondered whether your employer can watch what you do, the law now gives you a right to at least know.

The written policy requirement

Under the Working for Workers Act, 2022, employers in Ontario with 25 or more employees must have a written policy on electronic monitoring. The policy has to explain:

  • Whether the employer electronically monitors employees
  • How and in what circumstances monitoring happens
  • The purposes for which the information collected may be used

Employers are required to provide a copy to employees, and to new hires shortly after they start.

What the rule does — and doesn’t — do

It’s important to be realistic about the scope. This is primarily a transparency requirement. It does not, on its own, prohibit an employer from monitoring you, and it doesn’t create a standalone right to sue simply because monitoring occurred. Its core purpose is disclosure: employees are entitled to know what’s happening.

That said, how an employer monitors, and what it does with the information, can still intersect with other legal issues, including privacy expectations, human rights, and how monitoring evidence is used in a discipline or termination decision.

Where monitoring becomes a bigger issue

Electronic monitoring often surfaces in the background of other disputes:

  • Terminations built on surveillance data: where monitoring is used to justify “cause”
  • Discipline that feels targeted: particularly if it lines up with a protected characteristic or a recent complaint
  • Constructive dismissal claims: where invasive new monitoring changes the working environment significantly

In those situations, how the monitoring was conducted and disclosed can matter a great deal.

For employers

If you have 25 or more employees and don’t have a compliant electronic-monitoring policy in place, that’s a straightforward gap to close, and a sensible one, given how often monitoring practices end up scrutinized after a termination. A clear, compliant policy protects you as much as it informs your staff.

Questions about monitoring at your workplace?

Whether you’re an employee concerned about how you’re being tracked, or an employer trying to stay onside of the rules, this area sits at the crossroads of employment, privacy, and human rights law. Reach out for a consultation and we’ll help you make sense of it.