Just how much privacy are you entitled to at work? With some staff being filmed even when they visit the toilets, it’s a vexed issue for employee rights. For some staff “Big Brother is watching you” is all too uncomfortably true.

After all, it is standard practice in many workplaces to record phone conversations and run security cameras. But how much privacy do you sign away when you agree to work on an employer’s territory?

“I used to work for a company that routinely read everyone’s e-mails,” says one secretary. “We only found out because a few people lost their jobs for ‘inappropriate use of e-mail’. Prior to that, I had no idea that the occasional private e-mail I sent to a friend was public property. The contents certainly became a lot less juicy once I found out.”

And while many employees would rightly suspect that management reads e-mails, some companies rig up surveillance equipment without telling staff, and the TUC has even been involved in a legal battle with a company that put security cameras in the toilets after a spate of vandalism.

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Throw in swipecards for observing staff comings and goings, and a workplace bent on scrutinising employee behaviour could rank alongside a high-security prison in terms of the lack of privacy to which the workforce is subjected. And perhaps the most frightening aspect is that many companies seem to feel that they have a right to invade privacy minute by minute.

“We’ve come across a company who was actually using the swipecard system for staff to access the toilets, and then deducting the time spent from their wages,” says Ian Tasker of the TUC. “We would argue that it is not so much the right of staff to take toilet breaks, but the right of any worker not only to a reasonable amount of privacy, but a reasonable amount of dignity at work.”

In the eyes of the law, the right to privacy at work is more far-reaching than many employees imagine. Essentially, staff are entitled to privacy under the Human Rights Act, which includes an allowance for personal correspondence and phone calls. However, an employer can also prove that personal calls and e-mails are excessive if they go beyond what is deemed “reasonable” so it makes sense to keep these to a minimum.

An employer is legally obliged not to read e-mails or eavesdrop on conversations that are clearly of a personal nature. Employment groups recommend that you draft a “personal e-mail” template to send and receive non-work messages to make it very clear which ones an employer should and shouldn’t read. Similarly, you should make any personal phone calls on your mobile phone.

Once you’ve taken these precautions to safeguard your privacy, you should also remember that your professional time is for your employer, but as a human being, you are still entitled to private concerns.

Full legal guidelines are available from the Information Commissioner’s Office

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