- by Peter Marino
- The Guardian
- Issue #2199
Photo: pxfuel.com – public domain.
“Police cannot covertly surveil someone without a court order, the same rules should apply to your boss.”
So says Luke Hilikari, Victorian Trades Hall Council Secretary, welcoming new laws controlling workplace surveillance in the state. Hilikari pointed out that the old laws on employers monitoring and surveilling their staff at work had not been updated since 2006, before the iPhone was released.
Hilikari said that there is no legitimate use for the sheer volume of data that some employers are harvesting about their workforce through workplace surveillance.
Workers have complained of surveillance being used to monitor toilet breaks and conversations with coworkers.
Hilikari said that every worker should have a right to know how they are being monitored at work, what happens to that data, how it is being used and stored, and if it is being sold to a third party.
At the moment, employers in Victoria don’t have to notify workers if they are being monitored.
Now employers are still able to monitor workers, but will have to notify workers first. The monitoring needs to be necessary for the business’ operations, not just because the employer feels like it.
The legislation hasn’t been tested so far, and it’s quite likely unions will have to be very active about enforcing the standards. It’s worth noting that the standards have been introduced after a 5 year campaign by unions.
