Publication date: 14.05.2024
active and purposeful military lawyer with more than 4 years of experience
legal to observe an employee at work?
Today, many employers are interested in monitoring employee behavior at the workplace. Employers consider this necessary in order to exclude the dishonest performance of official duties by the employee or his improper use of the employer's property for personal purposes.
Employers also use video recording as evidence of disciplinary violations by the employee. Most employers are convinced that the privacy of their employees ends the moment they cross the threshold of their office, but this is not the case.
After all, according to the decision of the European Court of Human Rights of June 24, 2004, every person has his own personal zone of interests, which is inviolable even during working hours.
According to the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine, no one can be subjected to interference in his personal and family life, except for the cases stipulated by the Constitution of Ukraine; it is not allowed to collect, store, use and distribute confidential information about a person without his consent, except in cases specified by law, and only in the interests of national security, economic well-being and human rights.
Video recording in the workplace is the collection, storage and use of information about the private life of a natural person, that is, personal data of such a person, which may constitute an unauthorized interference in the private life of a certain person. For such interference to be legal, it must take place with the consent of the relevant individual, that is, a specific employee.Therefore, the video recording of an employee at the workplace is the processing of personal data of such an employee, that is, information about the employee who is specifically depicted in the video recording.
That is, for video recording in the workplace to be legal, it must take place with the written consent of a specific employee, because otherwise it is illegal.
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In order to install video surveillance, the employer needs:
— to accept an order on the organization of video surveillance. It is necessary to familiarize all employees with such an order, thus informing about video surveillance;
— include an item in the Rules of Internal Labor Procedures on the functioning of the video surveillance system;
— there must be warning signs in a prominent place in the room where video surveillance is carried out;
— employees servicing the video surveillance system must be familiarized with the Regulations on the Protection of Personal Data developed by the employer in order to avoid the disclosure of personal information about employees.
It is worth noting that covert video surveillance can be carried out only by law enforcement agencies, with the permission of the court.
According to the legislation of Ukraine, there is a criminal liability for the use of secret technical means of information.
