A division of a forestry and construction company with an office in Prince George lost a review of an arbitrator’s decision that awarded fallers $4,000 each for breach of privacy.
BC Labour Relations Board associate chair Andres Barker dismissed the application by Rehn Enterprises Ltd. on Jan. 6. Rehn disagreed with last July’s decision by an arbitrator against the use of rear-facing dash cameras in company vehicles. It argued that the award was inconsistent with the Labour Relations Code and wanted the matter deferred pending a decision by the Court of Appeal.
Rehn is part of the Kamloops-headquartered Roga Group, which operates in Prince George, Houston and Campbell River. At issue was the installation of dash cameras in the company’s four-wheel drive pickups in Campbell River, where Rehn is a falling contractor for Western Forest Products.
Rehn began installing the dash cameras in February 2023, prompting the United Steelworkers, Local 1-1937 (USW) to file a grievance the next month. It was referred to arbitration in April 2023 and, in September of that year, Rehn gave the union the dash camera policy and procedure, which stated the purpose for the rear-facing dash camera included “road conditions not seen by the forward-facing camera” and monitoring “distractions in cab – eating, texting, smoking, horseplay.”
The company did not enforce it, pending the award decision.
USW did not take issue with collection of GPS information or video from the forward-facing cameras while the crew bus was in motion. Its grievance was about the audio and video collected by the rear-facing camera and video by the forward-facing camera while the vehicle was idle.
The company argued that consent was not required because the purpose of the dash cameras related to road safety. During the arbitration, its four witnesses included Roga president Troy Young.
Arbitrator Jacquie de Aguayo found that the “overarching purpose for the surveillance is to monitor the fallers’ conduct, including for discipline. This is a purpose with a tenuous and speculative link to safety and is unreasonable.”
De Aguayo ruled that the company failed to give the union and workers notice of installation and decided the use of the rear-facing dash cameras was contrary to the Personal Information Protection Act. She ordered Rehn to turn off the rear-facing cameras, delete images collected and pay $4,000 in general damages to each faller.
Barker wrote that the arbitrator’s decision was “reasoned in how it made relevant findings and reached the conclusion that the fallers’ consent was required for the collection of information captured by the dash cams.
“I am therefore unable to find there is an error for the reasons stated by the employer and I also dismiss this ground of review,” Barker concluded.
