Surveillance at work can raise the possibility of breaches to an employee’s right to privacy, nevertheless, employees can’t reasonably expect total privacy at work.

Employers can monitor for valid business reasons and only after they have informed employees of their monitoring policy. It must also be reasonable and proportionate to the business need. Employers may monitor without consent when checking for violation of company policies, quality control or evidence of business transactions.

Some employers hire private investigators but in doing so they must have grounds to suspect criminal activity or serious misconduct, such as fraud. The more intrusive the investigation, the more likely it is to be a breach of the employee’s right to privacy.

Employees have the right to a “reasonable” amount of personal correspondence and calls during work. However, it doesn’t mean employees have the right to use work email and phone for this purpose. Employers can read employees business emails. Although opening personal messages is off limits other than by exception, employers can monitor email usage for anything unreasonable or inappropriate.

IT use and abuse is a big concern to a lot of employers. A survey by MyJobGroup.co.uk suggests that more than half of British workers access social media on company time, one-third for more than 30 minutes and nearly 6% for more than an hour a day. Social networking sites are also increasingly targeted by cybercriminals drawn to their huge user bases, putting employers at risk.

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