Employee Privacy and Personnel Records Policy

Purpose

NEO keeps information about the people it employs so it can pay them, meet its legal duties and run the firm. This policy explains what we keep, why, who can see it, how long we keep it, and how you can see and correct your own records. Our Privacy Policy covers clients and website visitors.

Who it applies to

• Employees of NEO, and people who apply to work here.
• Contractors and students: NEO keeps fewer records about them (their agreement, licence or placement details, contact and emergency contact information, and, for contractors, payment details), and handles those records in the same way.

The law, and our approach

Canada's federal private-sector privacy law, PIPEDA, covers information about employees and job applicants only where it is used in running a federally regulated business, such as a bank or an airline, so it doesn't generally cover NEO's staff records. We follow its fair-information principles anyway: we collect only what we need, tell you why, use it for that purpose, protect it, and let you see and correct it. Laws that do apply include the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA), the Ontario Human Rights Code, workplace health and safety and WSIB law, and the federal tax and Employment Insurance rules.

What we keep

• Hiring: your application, résumé, interview notes, references (checked with your consent) and offer letter.
• Agreements: your employment agreement, your confidentiality agreement, and any other written agreements, such as one about vacation pay or overtime.
• Identity and licence: your name, address, contact details and date of birth (needed for Canada Pension Plan rules) and, for a licensed paralegal, your Law Society licence number and status.
• Payroll: your Social Insurance Number (SIN), TD1 forms, banking details, pay rate, pay statements, deductions, T4 slips and Records of Employment.
• Time and attendance: punch-clock records, timesheets and corrections, your work schedule, Time Off and leave requests and approvals, and vacation records.
• Emergency contact details you give us.
• Performance and development: reviews, training records, feedback and any discipline.
• Health and accommodation: accommodation needs, leave documents, and workplace injury and WSIB records, kept separately as explained below.
• System records: sign-in, device and activity records, as our Electronic Monitoring Policy describes.
• Leaving: resignation or termination letters, final pay and the return of firm property.

Your Social Insurance Number

• We collect your SIN because the law requires it for payroll: income tax, CPP, Employment Insurance, T4 slips and Records of Employment. Federal rules require you to give it to us within three days of starting work.
• We use it only for those purposes and others the law requires. We never use it as an ID number or share it for any other reason.
• Only the people who run payroll can see it.

Health information is kept separately

1. We ask only for the health information we need: to support an accommodation, to manage a leave the law provides for, for a WSIB claim, or to plan a safe return to work.
2. For ESA sick leave, we may ask for evidence that is reasonable in the circumstances, but we won't require a note (a certificate) from a doctor, registered nurse or psychologist, as the ESA prohibits that. We may still ask for medical information where the law allows it for other purposes, such as an accommodation or a safe return to work.
3. For an accommodation, we usually need to know your needs and how they affect your work, not your diagnosis.
4. Health information is kept in a restricted part of your record, apart from your general file, and only the principal sees it, plus anyone the principal must involve, such as the WSIB.

Who can see your records

• You can see your own profile, pay statements, timesheets and Time Off requests in the staff portal.
• The principal, who is responsible for HR and payroll.
• Anyone the principal authorizes for a specific task, such as running payroll or advising NEO as its accountant or lawyer, and only what that task needs.
• Our service providers, which host our systems and store files privately with Google Cloud, under our Service Providers and Data Handling Policy.

Colleagues don't see your pay, health or performance records, or the reasons for any leave. Your name, role, work contact details, schedule and the days you're away may be visible to the team where that is needed to run the office.

When we share information outside NEO

Only:

• with your consent;
• where the law requires or allows it, for example to the Canada Revenue Agency, Service Canada, the WSIB, an employment standards officer, a court or tribunal, the Family Responsibility Office, or the Law Society of Ontario when the law requires us to;
• with our professional advisers and insurer, in confidence, for NEO's legal and financial obligations; or
• in an emergency that threatens someone's health or safety, for example by calling your emergency contact.

References. We give a reference, or confirm your job and dates of employment to anyone outside NEO, only with your consent.

How long we keep records

We keep each record for at least the period the law requires, and no longer than we need it:

• ESA: your name, address and start date for three years after your employment ends; records of hours for three years after the day or week they relate to; pay statement information for three years after it was given; vacation records for five years after they were made; and leave documents for three years after the leave ends.
• CRA and Service Canada: payroll records for six years after the end of the year they relate to.
• Everything else, such as agreements, performance records and injury records: for as long as we need them, including for any claim, or longer where the law requires.
• Applications from people we don't hire are kept for up to three years.

Records needed for an open claim, complaint, audit or investigation are kept until it is finished. After that, records are securely destroyed.

Seeing and correcting your records

1. Much of your record is in the staff portal. To get a copy of anything else in your file, ask the principal in writing. We aim to reply within 30 days.
2. We may hold back information about other people, legal advice given to NEO, or information about an investigation that is still open, and we will tell you if we do.
3. If something is wrong, ask us to correct it. If we disagree, we add your note explaining your view to the record.
4. Please keep your address, contact details, banking details, TD1 forms and emergency contact up to date.

Keeping it secure

• Records are kept in the staff portal and NEO's private, encrypted storage, and everyone signs in with their own account and sees only what their role allows.
• Anyone who handles HR or payroll information keeps it confidential, as our Confidentiality Policy requires for all firm information.
• If staff information is lost or seen by someone who shouldn't see it, we act under our Information Security and Data Breach Response Policy and tell the people affected promptly.

Review

This policy is reviewed at least once a year, and whenever the law changes. The principal approves every change.

Questions

Ask the principal, or email info@neolegalservices.com, call 647-200-3526 or toll-free 888-519-2435, or write to us at Unit 236, 1099 Kingston Road, Pickering, Ontario L1V 1B5.