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Employee Privacy and Monitoring

Technology is a boon to business, but it also raises complicated issues of privacy in the workplace. Today, the vast majority of businesses use computers, and technology has enabled employers to monitor nearly every aspect of workplace communications involving employees’ computer (email and internet) and telephone usage. Other methods that may be used in an employee surveillance system include the following: polygraph testing, workplace searches and camera monitoring. Privacy in HR practices is of course not limited to monitoring of employee communications or surveillance systems. Employee data management is an equally crucial topic which may lead to serious legal implications for corporations; if not handled in compliance with regulations. More and more, employers are facing labour law conflicts where non-compliant data protection practices are used as a legal argument.

At Lorenz, our lawyers are advising clients on how to ensure compliance when storing, processing, transferring, analysing and/or using personal employment/employee data and supporting them with their worldwide employee privacy policies which not only provides the framework to the employer rights to monitor employee communications but also boosts the confidence of employees to their workplace.

We counsel clients on the boundaries of permissible monitoring of employee use of company electronic systems (e-mail and the Internet), monitoring by video, and similar matters, including steps that clients must take to be in a position to engage in such monitoring legally.

We also advise clients on the most appropriate method of protecting their employee’s personal data, for instance, by ensuring the compliance of whistleblowing hotlines with EU and national data protection laws. Indeed, as result of Sarbanes-Oxley, many US companies with subsidiaries in the EU have been obliged to introduce some whistleblowing hotlines. Unfortunately, the approach of the national data protection authorities towards such hotlines has not been and is still not consistent. We advise companies on finding a suitable international strategy in this respect.