Workplace Surveillance: Big Brother Is Watching You?

• Author: Corneliu Bîrsan, Laura-Cristiana Spataru-Negura
• Pages: 50-64

LESIJ NO. XXV, VOL. 1/2018

WORKPLACE SURVEILLANCE: BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING

YOU?

Corneliu BÎRSAN

Laura-Cristiana SPTARU-NEGUR

Abstract

Only recently workplace surveillance has become a rea l concern of the internationa l

community. Very often we hear about employers who monitor and record the actions of their employees,

in or der to check for any br eaches of company poli cies or procedures, to ensure that appropria te

behaviour standar ds are being met and that company proper ty, confidential information a nd

intellectual property is not being damaged. Surveillance at workplace may include inter alia monitoring

of telephone and internet use, opening of per sonal files stored on a professional computer, video

surveillance. But what if this monitoring or recording br eaches human rights?

In or der to give practica l examples for these means, we shall proceed to a chronological

analysis of the most relevant cases dealt by the Eur opean Court of Human Rights along the time, in

which the Strasbourg judges decided tha t the measures ta ken by the employers exceed the limits given

by Article 8 of the Convention. After pr oviding the most relevant examples from the Court’s case-law

in this field, we shall ana lyse the outcome of th e recent Gra nd Chamber Barbulescu v. Romania

judgment.

The purpose of this study is to offer to the interested lega l professionals and to the domestic

authorities of the Member States the information in order to adequately pr otect the right of each

individual to respect for his or her pr ivate life and correspondence under the European Convention on

Human Rights.

Keywords: ECHR, employee, human rights, workplace surveillance.

1. Introductive Remarks

We all have been in the situation, at

one point, of using at wor k the company

resources for personal interest. What did you

do? Did you stop before doing it and thought

you are not allowed to use them? Did you

remember that the internal regulations

prohibited the use of company resources by

the employees? Or does your company have

a policy for employee personal use of

 Professor Emeritus, PhD, Faculty of Law, “Nicolaeă Titulescu”ă University,ă Bucharest (e-mail:

corneliu.birsan@hotmail.com).

 Assistantă Lecturer,ă PhD,ă Facultyă ofă Law,ă “Nicolaeă Titulescu”ă University,ă Bucharestă (e-mail:

negura_laura@yahoo.com).

business equipment or a code of ethics and

business conduct? Did you go to t he

management and asked for permission? Did

you use them and thought that nobody else

will find out? What if your employer decided

to monitor the employees’ communicatio ns

and you did not even know? What if you

knew, and you still have decided to use them

anyhow? And if we would tell you that

certain workplace surveillance techniques

could violate your human rights? Mo st

probably you will ask us: what does