CBC staff 'betrayed' by leaking of 'highly personal information' on Workday

Last year, CBC and Radio-Canada repeatedly sent staff a voluntary 'cultural census' to promote workplace equity, diversity and inclusion. It asked employees for their religion, sexual orientation, marital status and gender identity.

  • By Alex Dhaliwal
  • March 10, 2023
  • News Analysis
CBC staff 'betrayed' by leaking of 'highly personal information' on Workday
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Some CBC employees feel "betrayed" after their sensitive private information provided in a "confidential" diversity survey became public last week.

Last year, CBC and Radio-Canada repeatedly sent staff a voluntary "cultural census" to promote workplace equity, diversity and inclusion. It asked employees for their religion, sexual orientation, marital status and gender identity.

Several employees who spoke with the National Post said discovering the highly personal information as part of their HR profile on Workday shocked them. 

Labour and employment lawyer John Hyde called it a "travesty."

"Employees have an expectation of privacy and an absolute right to privacy. There are some exceptions [in privacy laws], but this is not one of them," said Hyde, partner at Toronto-based firm Hyde Law.

"I think it's a misuse of data," he added.

The Post viewed emails concerning the "cultural census." The Crown corporation claimed "complete confidentiality" for all employees. 

One Radio-Canada email told staff their data is a tool to "identify involuntary systemic obstacles" and conduct a "statistical analysis of its workforce."

Employees said they expected that "confidential" meant no data aggregation as none of the emails explicitly wrote they would link their personal information to public profiles.

One CBC employee, who identifies as LGBTQ, said she never discussed her sexual orientation with her employer, yet it showed on her Workday profile.

"I was taken aback, for sure," said the employee. "This was supposed to be purely statistical data, not in any way linked to our profiles."

Another employee described the leak as a "betrayal" of workers' trust.

"It feels like management tricked us into telling them personal details to improve diversity."

A CBC spokesperson claimed the employees' information "remains strictly confidential" and only a "select few" people can access it.

"Employees who have chosen to complete the Cultural Census can see their answers to the questionnaire on their profile, but neither Human Resources nor an employee's supervisor has access to this information," reads a statement from the Crown corporation.

They did not confirm whether they stored the personal information on CBC or Workday servers.

Hyde did not mince his words, stating, "confidential is confidential is confidential."

He added that employers should destroy the data promptly and become more transparent with employees on how it plans to handle their confidential details.

One Radio-Canada employee denounced their employer's "misuse" of workers' data as "sadly ironic" because the public broadcaster constantly airs concerns about privacy issues and the importance of protecting personal information.

"CBC isn't being transparent about what they do with this data and where it's stored," said the employee. 

"If CBC employees are surprised about seeing how their data is displayed on their own [human resources] tool, then we have a problem. That means the personal data was not used with CBC employees' consent."

"That's a huge problem."

CBC Canada News Analysis Wokeness
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