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 Home News General
Employee surveillance needs framework06 December 2003More employers are using increasingly more sophisticated methods such as email monitoring and telephone or computer surveillance to check on workers, but legislation has failed to keep up with the technology, according to a Sydney academic. Diane van den Broek, from the University of Sydney, said just under 80 per cent of employers in Australia used email monitoring - but it was difficult to get national figures on the use of other technologies. "Advances in workplace surveillance technology have moved so fast that the legislators need to keep up ... to protect employees against the often unilateral decision made by management or firms about how that technology is deployed," Dr van den Broek said. She said NSW government plans for legislation on the issue were a step in the right direction, especially in targeting covert surveillance. She said many employers were not using the technology in a way that would concern their employees, but legislation was needed to provide a clear framework for dealing with the issue and letting employees know their rights. Pamela Flynn, an employment and industrial law specialist from Cutler Hughes & Harris, said there was the potential for any legislation to lag behind technology. But the NSW plan for comprehensive, non-device-specific legislation would hopefully reduce this risk and could prompt similar moves in other states. Dr van den Broek said that intense monitoring could lead to employee stress, "although the surveys suggest that employees aren't so much worried about the surveillance but the work intensification that it can lead to". Mike Cowlishaw, director of human resource consultancy firm Cowlishaw Consulting, said the use of surveillance indicated a lack of respect on both sides and was a soft option that "is admitting failure as a management team". "How did you let the culture of an organisation get to the stage that you feel you need to make sure you are not getting ripped off through low productivity or theft?" he said. |
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© 2003 Health Services Union (HSU) |
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