Monitoring staff email 'was human rights breach'
Posted 18 April 2007 at 9:06AM by Simon Dickson in Email and communications
A European legal ruling earlier this month sends a reminder to companies who might monitor their staff's internet use. A Welsh college has been found in breach of human rights law when it monitored an employee's email, web and telephone activity in 1998 and 1999; she was awarded 3000 euro in damages for stress and anxiety.
The Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled unanimously that Carmarthernshire College had violated the right to privacy and family life when it began monitoring the communications of employee Lynette Copland. It was claimed that this was done 'in order to ascertain whether the applicant was making excessive use of College facilities for personal purposes.' The court's official judgement notes that 'there was no policy in force at the College at the material time regarding the monitoring of telephone, e-mail or internet use by employees.'
James Welch of human rights group Liberty, who represented Ms Copland, said: 'Employees don't leave their personal privacy at the front door when they come to work each day. This judgment makes perfectly clear that employers who spy on their staff are infringing their privacy.'
The court's judgement noted that laws passed in 2000 now cover interception of communications. Employers are required to take reasonable steps to inform employees that their communications might be intercepted, and to provide good reasons for doing so in every case.
The Business Link website has lots of helpful information on drafting and implementing an appropriate policy for staff internet and email use; it includes a sample policy which will give you a head-start.
Tags: human rights, internet usage policy
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