[Wolves] I been asked a wierd question.

[Andy Smith]

On Wed, May 24, 2006 at 12:24:35PM +0100, Simon Morris wrote:
> On Wed, 2006-05-24 at 12:05 +0100, Peter Cannon wrote:
> > Any decent company should have some form of policy in place even
> > if its just a line in your letter of employment saying "Misuse
> > of company property will result in disciplinary action" should
> > surfice as an employer is entitled then to gain evidence by
> > whatever means to prove misuse.
> 
> Erm, are you sure. To me that paragraph should be followed by a big bold
> "IANAL".
> 
> I don't think that is the case at all.

Indeed, for example the Data Protection Act alone requires that
workplace monitoring be targeted and employees informed in advance:

"Monitoring in the workplace can be intrusive, whether examining
e-mails, recording phone calls or installing CCTV cameras. Employees
are entitled to expect that their personal lives remain private and
they have a degree of privacy in the work environment. The
fundamental message is that, where monitoring does take place,
employees should be made aware of its nature and extent and the
reasons for carrying it out. Only in exceptional circumstances will
it be appropriate for employers to monitor their employees without
their knowledge." -- Information Commissioner

I am not a lawyer but I have worked in one place where someone was
caught doing something naughty, sacked, went to tribunal and company
ended up even worse off (compensation) because their usage policy
did not say anything about the monitoring that was in place.

At another workplace, the cleaners were suspected of stealing
property so video surveillance was installed.  They were caught on
it but the legal advice was to just sack them as they had never been
told they were under video surveillance.

Cheers,
Andy
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