{"id":2180,"date":"2022-02-02T02:02:02","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T02:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uk.legalvision.com.au\/?p=2180"},"modified":"2022-06-16T01:53:48","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T00:53:48","slug":"monitor-staff-at-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legalvision.co.uk\/employment\/monitor-staff-at-work\/","title":{"rendered":"How Can an Employer Monitor Their Staff at Work in England and Wales?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As an employer, there are times when you may need to carry out employee monitoring in the workplace. This can include monitoring your remote workers<\/a>. Monitoring your workers allows you to understand employee activity, enabling you to understand employee productivity and employee performance. Likewise, monitoring your workers’ activity may also help you spot where they are misusing workplace equipment, such as sending too many personal emails. There are rules in place which you should understand when carrying out workplace monitoring. Monitoring is not covered under one area of law but instead a variety of areas of law. This can make understanding monitoring and the rules concerning this confusing and challenging. This article will explain when you can monitor staff at work, how you might do this and some of the rules surrounding employee monitoring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Can an Employer Monitor Their Staff at Work?<\/h2>\n

As an employer, you may decide to monitor your workers. It is legal for you to monitor or conduct surveillance on your staff. Sometimes, there is a legal duty to monitor your workers’ activity. This can be because, as an employer, you can be found liable for your employees\u2019 activity, such as if they make defamatory comments about another employee. This is called vicarious liability<\/a>. Where an employer does not monitor workers’ activity where they should, they could find themselves in trouble regarding their legal role as a company director.<\/p>\n

However, there are rules if you choose to monitor your staff. Monitoring your staff covers several areas of law, not just employment law.<\/p>\n

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For example, certain types of workplace monitoring involving data must comply with data protection law. You should also carry out an impact assessment when monitoring your employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Additionally, your employment contracts should detail how you may monitor your workers’ activity. Where you do not detail this, and your workers are unhappy that you are monitoring them whilst at work, they may feel forced to resign. Consequently, you risk your ex-employees pursuing a claim for unfair constructive dismissal<\/a>. Also, where your staff have a reasonable expectation that their privacy should be respected, you should not be monitoring them. Where you monitor your staff and do not follow the rules regarding this, your workers may claim, for example, discrimination or false imprisonment.<\/p>\n

Ways an Employer Can Monitor Their Staff<\/h2>\n

You may decide to monitor your workers in the workplace in various ways. You may choose, for example, to monitor through:<\/p>\n