At Home: School bus driver wins battle to keep data Canadian
When it comes to employee background checks, the aim is usually to protect an employer and its customers. But a Saskatoon bus driver has scored a victory when it comes to protecting the privacy of Canadian workers.
Stephanie Sydiaha, a driver for First Student Canada, refused to let her employer run a background check ?because it was using a U.S.-based security firm,? as the CBC reports.
Sydiaha was concerned about where her personal data would end up?and how it might be used?once it crossed into the US. Not only are privacy laws more lax there, the Patriot Act is another consideration when handing personal data over to US companies.
Sydiaha was also worried that refusing a background check might cost her the job.
However, First Student announced this week that it will now be using a Canadian company to do background checks.
As company spokesman B.J. Langdon told reporters, ?It’s something that we’ve been looking at doing, but also because of concerns, some of the ones that have been raised.?
For her part, Sydiaha welcomed the news. She’d like to see background checks ?done by a police agency rather than another third party company,? but She’s glad that employee data won’t be made available to American authorities.
In Foreign News: Economic downturn hurts wage parity
In Australia, women are faring better than men when it comes to landing jobs. The bad news is that female earnings are “at their lowest point relative to men’s in two decades,? reports The Age.
Figures for May show the average female earning $54,907, just 82 per cent of the average male’s income of $66,581. Those figures put female earnings at their lowest proportion in 21 years.
Part of the problem is that economic woes have hit the retail and service industries especially hard?industries with a high proportion of female workers. In contrast, the mining and construction industries have shown ?big jumps in earnings.? Earnings in those sectors rose 3.3 and 3.2 per cent in the three months to May. In the hospitality sector, earnings fell 0.2 per cent, and retail earnings rose 1.2 per cent.
Job losses for men were 44,900, while women gained 45,100 jobs. However, the downward trend in female wages could be seen even before the recent economic upheaval. ?Women’s earnings have been falling relative to men’s for five years,? said CommSec economist Craig James, noting that It’s the trend that should be of concern, not specific wage levels.
