When Dinosaurs Roamed the Social Media Age: Harassment and Human Rights Cases in the New Workplace

• Author: Andrew Pinto and Robert Tarantino
• Pages: 349-365



WhenDinosaursRoamed

theSocialMediaAge

HAR AS S M E N T ANDHUMANRIG H T S

CA S E S I N T HENEW W OR KP L AC E

AndrewPintoandRobertTarantino*

AINTRODUCTION

Soci almed iaha sbec omeaho tissu eint odaysworkpl acesIt isal sopro -

vidingnew spaces and toolst hroughwh ichworkplace discrimi nation

and harassment may operateW hile the fundamenta l legal principles

concerninghumanr ightsremainrelativelyuncha ngedthelawisgrap-

plingwith novelcaseswhere socialmedia isinvolvedThis article will

lookat the intersection of social media and human rights and harass-

mentcases int heworkplaceWhile theopport unities forbreachof the

Ontar io HumanRightsCode and other related legislation are now greater

duetosocia lmedia theabilityto proveordisprovehuma nrights and

harassmentallegationsas wellas educatethe workforceabouthuma n

rightsand diversitynormsis alsog reaterEmployersthathavenotyet

appreciatedthe r isks and rewardspresentedby soc ial media doso at

theirconsiderableperilLetu shopet hatthe dinosaursthatcontinue

toroamourworkplacesbecomerapid lyextinc tinth isnewsoc ialmedi a

age

 BothofPintoWrayJamesLLPAndrewPintoisapartne rInadditiontohislitiga-

tionpracticeheisanadj unctprofessorattheFacu ltyofLawUniversityofToronto

aworkplaceinvestigatorandamediacomme ntatorRobertTarantinoisanas soci-

ateHepractisesint heareasofemploymentandlab ourlawhumanrightscivil

litigationandadm inistrat ivelaw

APRT

Thisarticlewill addresssocial mediaint heworkplacebycritically

reviewing relevanta ndrecent decisions regarding disc rimination and

harassmentint hefollowingareasapplicationsalsoknownascom-

plaintsbefore human rights tribuna lslabour grievances and arbi-

tration personal harassment cases under amendments toO ntarios

OccupationalHealthandSafetyActBillandhumanrightsallega-

tionsappendedtocivilclaimsbeforetheOntarioSuperiorCourtofJus-

ticeThroughoutthisreviewwewillhighlightrelatedissuessuchasthe

useofsocial mediaasevidenceand theusualconcer nsaroundreliabi l-

ityand relevanceI naddition wewil lcomment ont herole that inter-

nalcompanypoliciesplayandtheneedforbusinesses todevelopsocial

media policies and incorporateexplicitla nguage around use of social

mediainantidiscr iminationandant iharassmentworkplacepolicies

FinallywewillstressthatsocialmedianeednotbefearedWehope

todemystifysocia lmediaand suggestwaysforasensible approachto-

wardaddressing social mediaissues in theworkplaceSocia lmedia if

deployedcorrectlycanbeagreatnewtoolandresourcetohelpcompan-

iesthrivewhilemaintai ningacultur eofrespectintheworkplace

B W H A TI S S OC I A L M ED I A

Naturallyadenitionofsocialmediacanbefoundonthesocialmedia

websiteWikipediaSocialmedia includeswebbasedandmobile tech-

nologies used to turn com munication into interac tive dia logueSo-

cialmedia isa broadter mused todesc ribewebbased programs and

applications that link people together and allow users to generate their

owncontent Social media also describes physical deviceson which

these programs and applications may be used such as smar tphones

tabletcomputerslaptopsandtraditionaldesktopcomputersSocial

mediais both the iPhoneBlackBerryor other smartphone deviceas

wellastheapplicationssuchasFacebookandTwieronthatdevice

Examplesof soc ial media are social net working websitessuch as

FacebookLinkedI na ndGo ogleblogging websites such as Blogger

WordPressand Tumblr microblogging sites such as Twiermusic

basedwebsiteslikeMySpacevideouploadingplatforms like YouTube

photouploadingprogramssuchas Flickrenterpris eandintern albusi-

ness platforms like Yammercollab orativecontent applications called

wikiswithWikipediabei ngthemostfamousandeven thenowold

fashionedemailWhattheseallhaveincommonisadyn amicabilityto

 Seeonlineh penwikipediaorgwikiSoci almedia