Estate Planning

Blackberries: Hazardous to your Health?

By Hull & Hull LLP

Blackberries and iPhones have been in the news a lot lately. These communication devices seem to have become irreplaceable for many Canadians and their frequent use is having an impact on the work place.

This past Monday, the Globe & Mail carried a story about the potential health impacts of the chronic use of these devices. Problems such as Blackberry Belly, caused by slouching when you hunch over to read your screen, and Blackberry Thumb, caused from excessive texting, were just two of the many afflictions cited by a physiotherapist and researchers quoted in the article. Aside from these physical ailments, frequent Blackberry use may also contribute to anxiety.

The use of Blackberries after regular work hours also has the potential of becoming a pertinent employment issue with employees seeking compensation for their use outside office hours. Late last month, the Globe & Mail carried a story about the writers’ union for ABC News, the Writers Guild of America. The Guild was challenging a long standing contract waiver that prevented employees from collecting overtime pay for work that was be done after work hours and facilitated via communication devices such as Blackberries.

It will be interesting to see if the changing technology will have a long term impact on employee’s work environments, or if this is much ado about nothing.

Have a nice day,

Diane Vieira

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on July 16, 2008 (boomark / email).