Monitoring and security of staff

Checklist of monitoring issues

Use the checklist below when monitoring staff.

Management issues

Ensure that your reasons for, policies about, and methods of monitoring are:

• well thought out to meet your business needs
• justified and proportionate
• applied consistently and fairly

To avoid damaging employment relations as a result of monitoring:

• consult staff, employee representatives or trade unions about procedures and policies
• communicate policies to staff
• include monitoring policies in your workers' contractual terms and alert them to these when they start work with you
• control access to information collected through monitoring to authorised managers
• consider alternatives to monitoring
• inform staff of how you will deal with misconduct discovered through monitoring
• provide access to material obtained by monitoring, in line with data protection law

Internet issues

To avoid inappropriate use of the Internet and email:

• Set out workers' rights, responsibilities and limitations of use for the Internet and email at work, but don't be too restrictive.
• Allocate personal Internet usage time, eg outside normal working hours.
• Detail monitoring methods for Internet and email usage.
• Educate staff on the potential legal risks and liabilities/security problems that Internet/email misuse may create.
• Make clear to staff that you are complying with legal guidelines on interception.
• If you outsource computer support, provide in the maintenance contract for someone at your supplier to brief you on security issues. In order to comply with the Data Protection Act, you will need a contract with the support company requiring them to act under instruction from you only and which ensures that they take equivalent security measures to you.
• It's less intrusive to block access to sites than to monitor the sites someone visits.

Legal issues

• Ensure that your monitoring of staff complies with the Data Protection Act and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. If in doubt consult a solicitor.
• Put up notices reminding employees of your monitoring policies.
• UK passports are subject to Crown copyright protection and copies can only be made in certain circumstances, which include for the purpose of establishing a defence under section 8 of the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996. This is the law related to the prevention of illegal working. Find information about the prevention of illegal migrant working at the IND website . You can also find out about reproduction of the British Passport at the HMSO website .

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• Why you might monitor your staff and what monitoring includes
• When an employer is allowed to monitor staff
• Set up monitoring policies
• The right ways to monitor your staff
• The laws and penalties for improper monitoring
• Checklist of monitoring issues
• Staff security - your responsibilities as an employer