Employee email monitoring and workplace privacy in the European perspective

Abstract

The question of workers’ electronic surveillance has recently
drawn considerable attention due to the increased use of information
technology in the workplace, and the eventual implications of
monitoring operations, with the right to respect private life. It is broadly
accepted among European countries that employees should enjoy a
certain reasonable expectation of privacy and confidentiality of their
communications in their workplace since in the course of their working
lives, they might develop relations which extend beyond the professional
domain. Given that working activity results from a constant combination
of professional tasks with employees’ individual values, it becomes
difficult to clearly separate professional actions from those having a
personal nature. In this respect, employers should recognize a certain
degree of employees’ privacy at the workplace and implement proper
organisational and operational measures towards protecting their private
sphere, within the work environment.
However, the employees’ right to confidentiality of their
communications must be balanced with the legitimate interests of the
employer to run his business efficiently, and to protect himself from the
liability that employees’ actions may cause2
. Some of the main
legitimate grounds for applying workers’ email monitoring methods
consist of: safeguarding employee productivity from any waste of time
dealing with e-mails that are not relevant to his job; protecting the
company from potential lawsuits resulting from e-mail misuse such as
sexual harassment, bullying or racist comments, or the unlawful
downloading of materials; ensuring the confidentiality of company
information that can inadvertently or intentionally be disclosed, and
minimizing the viruses and spywares risks exposed to the company
network due to the careless sending and opening of emails3
. In
conclusion, before undertaking any monitoring operation, it is essential
for the employer to designate special technical and operational measures,
in order to avoid the disclosure of employees or third parties personal
information, not necessarily related to the work activity.