Existing legislative framework to address workplace harms 'sufficient,' chamber says
The Victorian Chamber of Commerce has expressed its concerns about the push for stricter workplace surveillance laws, emphasising the potential impact on business investment and innovation.
The chamber said in its submission to a state parliamentary inquiry that current state-based workplace surveillance laws already regulate email, internet usage, GPS, and camera surveillance, and that additional protections are included in industry codes and enterprise agreements.
"The Victorian Chamber believes that the existing legislative and regulatory framework is adequate and can be relied upon to address workplace harms arising from workplace surveillance," the submission read, as quoted by news.com.au.
Ban on 'social media trawling'
This comes in response to a submission by the Victorian Trades Hall Council advocating for a ban on employers trawling employees' social media accounts.
In its submission, the Victorian Trades Hall Council urged the government to implement a Privacy in Working Life Act and prohibit workplace surveillance outside of working hours.
"There should be a total ban on surveillance of workers and their communications when they are not at work, including a prohibition on social media trawling," the council's submission stated, as quoted by news.com.au.
"Employers are not agents of law enforcement, psychiatrists or priests – the private lives of working people are none of their business."
Workplace surveillance programmes
One of the programmes mentioned during the inquiry is InterGuard, a software that can monitor employee activities on computers and phones, according to news.com.au.
Researchers from Queensland University of Technology, also contributing to the inquiry, expressed concerns over how such technologies, even when not explicitly designed for surveillance, often have hidden monitoring functions.
"In 'regular' workplaces, new workforce optimisation and productivity management technologies may not position surveillance and monitoring of workers as their primary function, but nevertheless be a central and frequently hidden feature," the researchers said, as quoted by news.com.au.
The Victorian parliamentary inquiry into workplace surveillance held its first public hearing on Tuesday. Two additional hearings are scheduled for late September.
