Snooper accessed files of more than 4,000 SaskPower employees

A SaskPower employee who was fired in January for snooping into thousands of staff files could face further discipline, including possible charges.

According to a report from Privacy Commissioner Ron Kruzeniski, the employee had inappropriately accessed the human resources files of 4,382 current and former employees at the Crown-owned power company.

The employee also copied files onto portable storage devices.

The information included names, addresses, marital statuses, salaries, social insurance numbers and employee beneficiaries.

The privacy commissioner says the case has now been turned over to the prosecutor's office to determine if charges under privacy legislation or other statutes are required,

So far, there's no indication that the files were shared with anybody else or that the information was used for fraudulent purposes.

Rachelle Verret Morphy, vice-president of law, land and regulatory affairs with SaskPower, said the Crown corporation has updated their code of conduct to directly address snooping — as recommended by the privacy commissioner.

"Looking for information that doesn't relate to your job, and accessing personal information that we don't need is not appropriate," Verret Morphy said. 

"We're upgrading our training. We're making changes to our policy to deal with that specific point."