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w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 6 41 that is available internationally in the same way any media would be available," he says. "It heightens the profiles of individuals and can attach them to their companies." Laranja points to a case from 2014, Toronto (City) v. Toronto Profession- al Firefighters Association Local 3888, (Bowman Grievance), where the arbi- trator upheld the with-cause dismiss- al of a firefighter for off-duty conduct regarding derogatory tweets. Although the man wasn't tweeting on the job, his profile identified him as a Toronto fire- fighter — complete with a profile picture of him in full uniform. The arbitrator agreed the tweets, called "sexist, misogynistic, racist and generally offensive" in the decision, were damaging to the employer's reputation and were a violation of numerous poli- cies. Despite an apology letter from the grievor and his claim he didn't know his tweets were public — an excuse that, with the widespread use of social media, "doesn't fly anymore," says Laranja — the arbitrator decided the employee's actions were enough to warrant his dismissal. "Interestingly, the arbitrator said that circulating these slurs and com- ments and insults, regardless of who created them, was discrimination and, while it wasn't addressed in this case, it raises some interesting questions about retweets or sharing posts, even liking posts," Laranja says. "It's interesting to see where it will go if an employee does nothing more than retweet derogatory comments because it creates almost a workaround where they can have an anonymous profile tweeting what they'd like and then retweeting publicly." Mendl, with an eye to the TTC case and its possible implications, says employers with a social media presence should take steps to monitor and pre- vent workers from being exposed to harassment or discrimination and advis- es employers to review existing policies. "We've said time and time again one of the most important elements of social media is to have a policy in place that's realistic and reasonable but at the same time protects employers' interest," Laran- ja says. She notes that training for employees on accepted social media usage is a simple way for employers to mitigate risk and try to cut down on "spillover" events. Ratchford says clear policies are a good idea, but a challenge to enforce given the many different ways social media can impact a workplace. "When our clients are involved in high-profile issues, we make requests of our employees not to get involved on social media, and we also make requests that if they are identified with our com- pany that any of their social media activity is respectful," Ratchford says, adding he thinks one other issue to come will be the degree to which employers can make such demands of their employees when it comes to their personal use of social media. "It wouldn't surprise me at all if we see an increase in decisions from courts and arbitrators around the new impacts of social media," Ratchford says. "I don't think we've seen all of it yet." Congratulations, Graham J. Clarke On the 25th anniversary of Clarke's Canada Industrial Relations Board For 25 years, Graham has written and updated successive editions of this classic work (previously Canada Labour Relations Board: An Annotated Guide), offering precise summaries of reported Board cases, insightful commentary, and invaluable cross-references between key Canada Labour Code sections. Clarke's Canada Industrial Relations Board contains 45 years of board case law and incorporates all major recent Code amendments. Graham J. Clarke, a bilingual labour arbitrator/mediator, served as a Canada Industrial Relations Board Vice-Chair from 2007 to 2016. In addition to acting as legal counsel to the Board's first Chair, Mr. Marc Lapointe, Q.C., Graham practised labour, employment and administrative law for two decades in private practice. He is currently a roster arbitrator for the Canadian Railway Office of Arbitration and Dispute Resolution, as well as an approved arbitrator on the Federal Minister of Labour's list for Code and other employment- related matters. © 2016 Thomson Reuters Canada Limited 00240HF-84827-RM

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