2024-2025 Global AI Trends Guide
In 2021 the UK ICO said that it would revise its Employment Practices Data Protection Code to reflect the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018. It has now published its first topic-specific guidance on employee monitoring in draft form. The draft guidance is open for consultation until 11 January 2023.
The ICO published its Employment Practices Data Protection Code (the Code) in 2011. In 2021 it said that it would review the Code to reflect the legal framework in the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, along with changes to working practices and technological advances over the last decade. The new guidance would be online and topic-specific.
A draft of the employee monitoring guidance is now available, which is open for consultation until 11 January 2023. The consultation invites views on whether the guidance is clear, whether it covers the relevant issues and whether it should provide further examples or cover additional scenarios.
The core message of the guidance is that employers need to balance their own interests against the degree of intrusion monitoring will entail for employees when deciding whether monitoring is justified. This is unsurprising and reflects the long-standing approach under the Code. Reflecting recent changes in working practices, the guidance emphasises that employees will have significantly greater expectations of privacy where they are working from home than when they are working from an employer’s premises.
The guidance covers both systematic and occasional monitoring. It explains the legal framework for lawful employee monitoring and highlights factors that will be particularly relevant in specific cases, such as email monitoring or video or audio recording. The final section focusses on using biometric data, which the Code did not deal with at all.
Points from the guidance that may require employers to review their approach to employee monitoring include:
The key points of the guidance are not surprising but highlight the importance of taking a balanced and proportionate approach to employee monitoring. Employers are unlikely to be able to justify intrusive monitoring if less intrusive monitoring would allow them to meet their objectives. As the guidance observes, “just because a form of monitoring is available, does not mean it is the best way to achieve your aims”.
Authored by Jo Broadbent and Stefan Martin.