Farmers and meat packers are
crossing the line when they video-tape employees to safeguard animal welfare,
says British Columbia information and privacy commissioner Drew McArthur.
He was commenting on Elite
Farm Services Ltd. whose chicken-catching crew members were captured on
underground video footage stomping on chickens.
The
company fired the workers on the video and implemented video surveillance in
the form of body cameras worn by a supervisor and at least two staff members
during working hours.
A
similar situation developed at Chilliwack Cattle Co. in British Columbia after
underground video captured employees hitting cows to get them into a rotary
milking parlour and using a chain and tractor to pull a downer out of the
milking stall.
The
company fired those workers and has set up video surveillance cameras to watch
whether employees are meeting company welfare standards.
McArthur said “I was
concerned that video surveillance was being used as a ‘quick fix,’ without
thoughtful consideration of its privacy impacts” on Elite Services staff.
The federal government’s Personal
Information Protection Act (PIPA) governs the collection, use and disclosure of
personal information an in his report, McArthur wrote, “We found that the
company was not authorized to collect the information under PIPA because the
purposes for which it was collecting and using personal information were not
reasonable.”
