Andrea Thomas outlines the potential legal pitfalls for companies who are tracking staff
Over recent years, the distinction between work and home spaces has become blurred through remote working. More employers may feel they need to ‘keep an eye’ on employees who aren’t physically in the office. However, the use of various monitoring techniques can throw up legal issues and conflict with employees.
In 2020, Barclays Bank withdrew plans for a system that tracked employees’ individual working patterns following negative publicity. More recently, Amazon was fined 32m (27m) by the French data protection authority for the ‘excessive’ monitoring of warehouse employees.
Methods of monitoring include recording telephone conversations, searching emails, reviewing internet use or the monitoring of mouse clicks or keystrokes. Some employers may also use CCTV surveillance or physically track the vehicles of employees who are not office-based.
Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), incorporated into UK law by the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998), provides the right to respect for private and family life. Case law suggests that this may be infringed by monitoring when employees are not aware of it and there is no relevant IT policy in place.
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