Employee monitoring goes to court, and we learn about ‘time theft’

In today’s Big Story podcast, what counts as “work” and what doesn’t? If you’re sitting there doing nothing, thinking of how to accomplish your goals, are you working? Well, if you’re using a company laptop, the software watching your every move probably doesn’t think so.

Valerio De Stefano is the Canada Research Chair in Innovation, Law and Society at Osgoode Hall Law School and co-author of the 2022 book, Your boss is an Algorithm. He joins us to delve into the implications of a recent B.C. tribunal case, where productivity tracking software data was submitted as proof that an employee had committed ‘time theft.’

“Time theft is sort of seen as the counterpart of wage theft, but it’s quite problematic because it almost assumes that time, even when its paid, belongs to your employer,” he said. “Time is an essential, existential element of your life that cannot be alienated, it cannot be given away, therefore it cannot be stolen.”

What kind of rules exist around employee monitoring in Canada? How far can this go? And who among us has never ‘stolen’ some time? Like, really?

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