The rise in remote work caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has led to more workplace monitoring as companies are seeking to secure themselves from security threats. It is projected that 70% of large employers will be keeping tabs on their workers by 2025. Employee surveillance may be traditional such as CCTV cameras or advanced such as computer monitoring and GPS tracking.
Notwithstanding, these actions have important implications on privacy, trust, and employer power limits. How can an organization safeguard its business interests while still minding about legal rights of employees? The Employment Rights Act 1996 and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) provide a framework for both employees’ and employers’ rights and responsibilities. But companies should keep in mind about surveillance cloud backfire.
Surveillance practices should strike a balance with respect to individual’s privacy because the DPA imposes strict rules as far as personal information collection and management is concerned. Companies must be cautious when they track electronic communications including emails or internet activity.
Employees have a reasonable expectation of privacy in relation to their communications – any monitoring should be transparent, suitable and lawful. Employers also need to be careful in relation to social media observations since there is widespread use among people.
It is possible for someone to monitor work-related social media accounts yet this would amount into invading an employee’s personal social media without any valid reasons that could lead into legal consequences. If employees believe that their right to privacy has been breached or if they feel that their employment relationship has suffered due to the employer’s actions then they may bring claims through litigation or resorting some other dispute resolution mechanism like tribunal process.
Manage Legal Implications Before Using Monitoring tools
To mitigate risks, it is essential that companies develop an easily comprehensible policy about what monitoring entails, so as to ensure its acceptability for all purposes. Breaching data protection laws through excessive levels of monitoring could result in company investigations and penalties from ICO.
Employers conducting surveillance must have legitimate grounds for doing so; such as ensuring employee safety, protecting company property, preventing misconduct and complying with regulatory standards.
Employers must let their workers know about the mode of surveillance they use and why it is done for them to avoid falling into jeopardy. At all times, data protection laws need to be complied with which involves observing the requirements of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act (DPA). While employee consent is important, it may not always suffice in employment context.
Speaking on a legal basis for processing personal data from workplace monitoring activities employers should assess whether they have one. Under GDPR, organizations are obliged to do a privacy impact assessment where there are specific high-risked types of data processing activities aimed at individuals’ rights and freedoms. Employees have right to access personal information held by an employer about them, make corrections to it and object in specific circumstances against certain types of data processing.
Employers should keep proper records of what they did in relation to monitoring and what steps were taken to defend employees’ rights because this will indicate that the monitoring was lawful. They should use the right employee surveillance software. In that case, Controlio can be a great choice. . With respect to privacy rights observance, informed consent collection as well as compliance with data protection legislation employers transmit a clear message – businesses can effectively handle surveillance while reducing legal risks. Make sure you use the right monitoring software like Controlio. It is one of the best employee monitoring
To establish a good balance, employers must come up with clear guidelines on employee monitoring while ensuring that workers are aware of what is being monitored and why.
Creating such a delicate equilibrium is important because it would foster productivity in workplaces as well as respects personal freedoms.