- Office staff are being urged to be vigilant amid claims
that company bosses are launching covert surveillance operations to spy
on them at work.
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- Employment lawyers are warning of a steep rise in the
number of firms prepared to eavesdrop in the workplace, using a range of
bugging devices and microscopic cameras.
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- David Christie, an Aberdeen-based solicitor with Proactive
Employment Lawyers, said the area is difficult to police and the law was
beginning to lag behind the new technology.
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- He added: "They have access to a bewildering array
of eavesdropping technology. Employer surveillance has become big business
and a lot of large companies are using sophisticated technology against
their own people."
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- Human rights groups are increasingly concerned about
bugging devices - which are not illegal or licensed in this country. Thousands
of people in Britain are tapping into private conversations and surveillance
equipment is traded legally through shops, mail-order firms and the internet.
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- Privacy International, a watchdog on government and corporate
surveillance, estimates that more than 200,000 bugging devices and covert
cameras are sold every year.
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- Stephen Grant, a partner with the Edinburgh-based investigators
Grant & McMurtrie, has seen an increase in requests for corporate monitoring
in the last five years.
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- They recently exposed an employee who was caught on camera
smoking a cannabis joint, and a manual worker who was building a house
extension while off work with a bad back."It is a boom area,"
he added. "We launch operations at work where it is feared that staff
are stealing or malingering. We could use a camera if the client has grounds
to suspect theft or other breaches of contract. These are tiny, pinhole
cameras which you would never see."
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- Employment lawyers are warning a little-known code of
practice from the Information Commissioner could erode privacy rights.
Sending e-mails to friends, checking football scores or playing computer
games on the internet could result in a written warning or dismissal.
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- Before the changes came into force in June, many employers
were cautious about spying on their staff, even if they had genuine fears
about misuse of company time and equipment. Lawyers now say the code of
practice will give bosses the green light for full-scale surveillance operations,
when it may not be justified.
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- Jim Price, an employment lawyer and partner with Ross
Harper solicitors, in Glasgow, said many workers were unaware they are
spied upon.
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- He added: "If employers only have to justify surveillance
to themselves, it is very subjective. Staff could be monitored frequently
and will never know."
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- - tthompson@scotsman.com
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- ©2003 Scotsman.com
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- http://www.news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1299642003
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