THE NSW Government recently unveiled draft legislation which would further restrict the surveillance of employees at work
THE NSW Government has unveiled draft legislation that would further restrict the surveillance of employees at work.
The draft Workplace Surveillance Bill 2004 (Draft Bill) would restrict the ability of employers to monitor their employees’ email and internet use, and also restricts and regulates the blocking by employers of emails and internet access of employees at work.
“The Draft Bill raises a number of concerns for employers,” according to Alicia Taranto, a solicitor for Freehills.
“Their ability to make sure their employees are appropriately using the tools that are provided to them – particularly email and internet access – is a key requirement for employers.”
The Draft Bill, which was released by the NSW Attorney-General for public comment, also imposes restrictions not only on video surveillance in the workplace but more broadly on camera surveillance, computer surveillance (surveillance of the input, output or other use of a computer by an employee) and tracking surveillance (surveillance of the location or movement of an employee).
“Some of the provisions really do raise some quite difficult conundrums,” Taranto said.
“If you tell your employees that you’re going to be conducting other forms of surveillance that might not necessarily be directed at them, but they might be caught up in that surveillance, then they have to be notified of that surveillance.
“It raises some practical difficulties whether they give you that consent,” she said.
A number of major businesses are currently making submissions to the Attorney-General regarding the Draft Bill, which are likely to have some impact on the end legislation.
“I think it will get through to the extent that there will be regulation of an employer’s ability to monitor internet and email usage, however we wouldn’t be surprised if some of the specific details were amended as a result of the submissions,” said Freehills employee relations partner, Anthony Longland.
“There are some issues in the Draft Bill which are going to be very difficult for businesses, and it represents a significant increase in the restrictions around employers’ ability to track what employees do with email systems and internet access unless X, Y and Z occurs.”
If the Draft Bill is enacted in its current terms, Freehills recommended that employers should consider ensuring that new employees be advised that their email and internet use will be surveilled, and install a log-in notifier advising employees that their email and internet use is subject to monitoring.
