When an employer confronts an employee with an allegation of improper access to personal information, it is important to give the employee the event log data that proves the allegation. It may often be voluminous and difficult to interpret, but presenting a general allegation or summarizing events without particulars will give the employee a good reason to deny the allegation.
This is what happened in this very illustrative British Columbia case in which an arbitrator held he could not infer dishonesty from the grievor’s initial failure to admit wrongdoing because the grievor had not been given log data. Also, if an employee continues to deny responsibility, log data can be difficult to rely upon; even if it can be established to be authentic, there are issues about presenting log data in a meaningful and privacy-protective way. An early admission can go a long way.
All About Information 