How should my employer approach monitoring at work?

Employers may want to monitor their workforce for a variety of legitimate reasons such as discouraging theft or violence. Workers will generally expect and accept some degree of monitoring as necessary – for example, monitoring can help ensure that workers in hazardous jobs are not at risk from unsafe working practices. However, if used in inappropriate ways or in the wrong situations, monitoring can have an adverse impact on staff. It can intrude into their private lives, disrupt their work, or interfere with the relationship of mutual trust and confidence between them and their employer.

The Data Protection Act does not prevent employers from monitoring workers, but where monitoring involves the collection, storage and use of personal information, it must be neither routine nor excessive. Also, where the employer is holding data, it must do so securely.

Before deciding whether to introduce monitoring arrangements, your employer should:

• be clear about the reasons for monitoring staff and the benefits that this will bring
• identify any negative effects the monitoring may have on staff, including on their private lives within the workplace
• consider whether there are any, less intrusive, alternatives to monitoring
• judge whether the monitoring is justified, taking into account all of the above.

Your employer should also consult with the trade union or other staff representatives. Except in extremely limited circumstances, employers must tell staff about any monitoring arrangements and the reasons why they are being or have been introduced.

If, for example, your employer is keeping a record of Internet sites visited by staff, you should be told the reasons for this, what information will be recorded and retained, for how long, who will have access to the information and how the information will be used.