December 6, 2006 12:30 p.m. EDT

Playback: Monday, December 11, 3:30 - 5pm

Gordon Luborsky

Arbitrator/Moderator

Leanne MacMillan

Union Counsel
Nova Scotia Nurses' Union

Robert Sider

Management Counsel
Lawson Lundell

Some of the questions to be addressed:

• In what circumstances can employees be required to provide medical information/reports/certificates to employers? To justify absence due to illness? To support a disability claim?
• How much medical information can employees be required to provide to their employer? To the union? To the workers' compensation board? Is the employer limited to information about employees’ functional abilities and restrictions, or can it insist on knowing the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatments that a worker is receiving? Can an employer discipline a worker for refusing to provide detailed information? Can a worker be withheld from the job pending the provision of more detailed information?
• What information do employers require to assess accommodation options? Can employers demand more information from disabled employees (medical certificates for every absence, reports on rehabilitation progress) than is required of other employees? How do workers' compensation boards and human rights tribunals balance the employer's interests against the employee's right to privacy?

• What actions may an employer take when it is of the view that the medical certificate is inadequate? When can an employer insist on a second opinion? Can an employee be compelled to attend a doctor of the employer's choice? Or submit to an independent medical assessment? Who pays the cost?
• Can an employer's doctor communicate with the employee's doctor without the employee’s consent? Must employees provide consent or face discipline?

• Who is entitled to see an employee's medical information? Is a worker's manager or direct supervisor entitled to access the employee's medical information? Are the employee and the union entitled to medical information in the possession of the employer, its physician or its staff?
• What medical information relating to an employee is the employer entitled to access during the grievance/arbitration process? Can an arbitrator order a grievor to disclose medical information during the arbitration proceedings? Can arbitrators order grievors to undergo medical examinations? What restrictions will be imposed on the use of medical information by arbitrators?
• How does recent federal and provincial privacy legislation affect the disclosure of employees’ personal medical information? In what circumstances can employers seek the release of employee medical information from third parties (doctors, hospitals, occupational health and safety nurses, benefit providers, workers' compensation boards)?
• What is the role of unions in safeguarding the rights of employees to privacy of personal health information?

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