The European Court of Human Rights has held that an employer can monitor an employee’s personal emails at work – within reason.
nThis was a Romanian case which goes back to 2007 when Barbulescu, an engineer, used his business account to exchange personal messages with his fiancée and his brother. Some of these messages were very private and intimate in nature and made references to his health and sex life.
nThe company’s rules stated that employees were strictly forbidden from using equipment such as computers, photocopies, telephones etc for personal use. His employer found the messages during monitoring and as they were in breach of his contract of employment Barbulescu was dismissed. The evidence showed that he had been timewasting.
nHe subsequently argued that this infringed the Human Rights Act and the right to privacy.
nThe European Court of Human Rights held that Romanian courts were entitled to look at the evidence to determine whether the dismissal was justified. The employer believed they were accessing a work account and was justified in verifying that employees were completing their work during working hours.
nThis case is not just limited to email messages and would include other personal messages such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Employees need to remember that if they are using equipment or an account which belongs to the employer, it is not theirs.
nDoes this mean that an employer has free rein to spy on employees? No – an employer needs to have clearly written policies which set out rules about use of company equipment and accounts, whether personal use will be tolerated, what usage is permitted, what information will be collected by the employer and how. In this case, the rules were clear and there was a ban on using equipment.
nFor more infomation on Employment Legislation issues please contact Sheila Watson: sheila.watson@hartlepool.gov.uk