The Irish Court of Appeal has handed down a decision (DPC v Doolin) relating to the alleged misuse of CCTV by an employer in disciplinary proceedings relating to an employee taking unauthorised breaks. In this case, the Court of Appeal held that the use of CCTV was unlawful as its use wasn’t provided for in the employer’s CCTV policy.
Although the judgment was decided under the pre-GDPR law, the same data privacy considerations are still relevant for both Irish and UK employers.
Background
The starting point, which many employers will be familiar with, is that data must be processed for an explicit and legitimate purpose (which will normally be set out in the privacy notice) which needs to be communicated to the individual. The individual’s data should not be further processed for an incompatible purpose.
The employer’s CCTV policy stated that: “The purpose of the system is to prevent crime and promote staff security and public safety” (emphasis added). Furthermore, a sign was placed next to each camera, which stated that: “Images are recorded for the purposes of health and safety and crime prevention” (emphasis added).
In this case, the employer sought to rely on CCTV as evidence as part of an employee’s disciplinary process relating to taking of unauthorised breaks. There was no evidence that the disciplinary issue was related to a security issue.
Conclusion
The Court of Appeal said that the mere fact of further processing doesn’t automatically mean that the further use...
Instagram Jenna Dewan’s husband, Steve Kazee, is not here for the narrative that she and her pro partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, have “chemistry” off the dance floor on Dancing With the Stars. Steve ho...