Staff Monitoring Guidance Needed Now, Says TUC

The UK’s trade unions are urging the Information Commissioner to resist “employer lobbying” and to publish the delayed code of practice on monitoring of staff e-mail and internet use. The unions claim that, because of the absence of the code, both businesses and employees have lacked guidance on their legal rights and obligations under data protection laws.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) said today that the publication of the guidelines should be the first item on the agenda of Richard Thomas, who took over his role as the UK’s new Information Commissioner last month.

The TUC claimed that the latest draft of the code “gets it about right”, requiring employers to “have a justifiable reason before breaching employee privacy.”

The organisation argued that the draft provides, as it is today, clear guidance on how the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) regulates employers’ use of e-mail and internet monitoring, CCTV cameras and covert surveillance to monitor staff, and it is therefore ready to be published.

The TUC also claimed that any further delay in the publication of the code, which has been under review for over two years, could result in amendments in the employers’ favour.

The organisation also said it will support the Commissioner’s suggestion to produce a shorter guide for small businesses, but only if this supplements rather than replaces the guidelines.

The first draft of the guidelines was issued in 2000 to help businesses prepare for the implementation of the DPA, setting out standards for using personal information that relates to employees. However, it has since been subject to three consultations involving unions and employers’ representatives.
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