| The
Legalities of Workplace Monitoring
"Is it legal for me to monitor
my employee’s activity in the workplace?" In the UK, this is the first
question we are always asked by business owners and managers interested
in MAS and wishing to protect their business and themselves
(vicarious liability) through the potentially inappropriate or even
criminal and illegal behaviour of their employees in the workplace.
To answer this and other critical questions important
to both the Employer and the Employee, we have teamed up with
leading UK Personnel & Employment Law Consultancy - Peninsula.
email: legal@3ami.com
Established
since 1983, Peninsula provide their 17,500
clients, throughout the UK, with Personnel
and Employment Law and Health and Safety
Consultancy.
Peninsula have grown
due to their commitment to customer care
and by tailoring their unique Services,
including Employment Tribunal Services,
Corporate Solutions for larger corporate
clients, Tailored Training and informative
Seminars.
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Questions
answered by Mike Huss, Peninsula's Senior Employment
Law Specialist
Questions
from the employer:
- Is it legal for me to monitor
my employee’s activity in the workplace?
- What do I have to do to
make it legal?
- What are the benefits to
me?
Questions
from the employee:
- Does workplace monitoring
infringe my rights?
- What do I need to know about
workplace monitoring?
Workplace Monitoring
Questions from
the Employer:
1. Is it
legal for me to monitor my employee’s activity in
the workplace?
2. What
do I have to do to make it legal?
Peninsula
answer:
Staff
should be made aware, at induction and reminded
subsequently at intervals, that it is your
policy to monitor, that you in fact do so
and will take action against transgressors.
The
detail should be spelt out in contracts
of employment and the employee handbook
as appropriate.
If
you do not have such terms in your current
contracts then you will need to introduce
them. Consult with all your staff explaining
why you need to do this. Listen to any objections
– encompass them if you can, but it is your
responsibility. If necessary dismiss (invalid)
objections by, if you cannot persuade the
individual(s) to accept the changes, giving
them their notice, in writing (complying
with the Statutory Disputes Resolutions
Procedures), that the employment is terminated
and offering them the alternative contract
containing exactly the same terms and conditions
as before but including the additional terms
relating to monitoring.
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3. What are the benefits
to me?
Peninsula
answer:
Fewer
problems regarding low performance, both
quality and quantity, less (hopefully none)
misbehaviour with the internet and e-mails
and a smoother disciplinary or capability
progression with added certainty of winning
any Tribunal should one happen along.
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Questions from
the employee:
1. Does
workplace monitoring infringe my rights?
Peninsula
answer:
No
– it enhances them. The Employment Rights
Act 1996, the Data Protection Act 1998,
the Human Rights Act 1998 (which does not
apply to private employers anyway) the Telecommunications
(Lawful Business Practice) (Interception
of Communications) Regulations 2000 allow,
and require that employees use of telecommunications
equipment can and should be monitored to
prevent abuses of employees by their employer
and other employees.
Nothing
in all the regulations gives an employee
the right to use the employer’s equipment
for personal use but if an employer does
allow the, for example, taking of private
telephone calls in an emergency, those calls
should not be monitored or listened to.
However all business “transactions” can
and should be monitored to prevent harassment,
bullying or abuse of employees by another.
Staff should be made aware that such monitoring
occurs and what will happen if someone does
disobey the rules.
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2. What
do I need to know about workplace monitoring?
Peninsula
answer:
That
it:
- happens;
- what
is and is not acceptable; and
- what
happens if the rules are infringed
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