A dozing TTC ticket collector caught on camera a while back has led to an army of pocket poparazzies in Toronto trying to capture on film every act of misconduct or grumpiness by TTC employees. The Toronto Sun bumped Haiti off the front page to cover this momentous 
story! A couple of days ago, there was a story about a TTC employee filming an irate customer who was filming him. It’s really only a matter of time before something bad happens out of all of this, I suspect. One of these TTC employees is going to take exception to being filmed without their permission, and something bad will happen. Is this situation getting dangerous? Keep in mind, the buses and trains and ticket collection booths are workplaces.
[Postscript: here we go, as predicted, this situation of photo-taking in the TTC is raising tensions. Check out this Star story]
I’m interested in this topic from an HR and employment law perspective. If someone started filming me at work and refused to stop when I asked them, I’d be pretty pissed off. If someone tried to video-tape my lecture, and refused to stop when I asked, I’d leave the room and call security. I don’t know this for sure, but I think my employer would support my right not to video-taped without my permission while I am working. Which raises an interesting employment law question: What should the TTC being doing about this situation?
So far, the employer has sided with the paparazzies, blessing them for pointing out the bad employee conduct, and promising to deal with the employees and the ‘culture’ of poor attitudes amongst the employees.
I wonder at what point having customers confront TTC employees with cameras, provoking TTC employees to confront the passengers, becomes interference with the safe and orderly operation of the transit system and or safety of the customers (and the employees). Was it the TTC’s intention that customers be permitted to film employees who don’t want to be filmed? If so, that would be an odd human resource management policy, wouldn’t it? How many of you working people expect to be filmed at work by strangers without your permission, with your employer’s consent? Do you HR students/manager believe that allowing customers to video-tape employees at work (against the employees’ wishes) will improve employee morale or productivity?
And does the TTC’s willingness to endorse the paparazzis increase the possibility of a altercation between employees and the public? If so, shouldn’t the employer be concerned about that? Do they have a legal obligation to prevent unwanted filming of their employees at work?
Employers have legal obligations to prevent workplace harassment, to ensure a safe workplace, and to address situations in which violence or harassment in a workplace could occur. A bus is a workplace. Doesn’t mean that the transit company has a legal obligation to prohibit video-taping of employees without the employees’ permission?
Another option for the TTC would be to ask customers to use the existing complaints procedure and to file a complaint, rather than take matters into their own hands by pulling out cameras. Maybe the TTC could improve that process and make it easier to complain. This would not make for front page news, but it would deflate the escalating tensions between customers and TTC employees, and between the TTC and the employees and would likely avoid what I suspect is an inevitable incident between workers and the public that will occur if customers keep snapping cameras in the buses.
What do you think about this? Are bus and subway drivers fair game for being video-taped while they perform their jobs? Does the employer have an obligation to prohibit all videotaping on public transit vehicles?
