Can an employer monitor employee communications?

Can an employer monitor employee communications?

The employer may monitor the employee’s communications at the workplace under certain conditions.

This was decided by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in case of  BĂRBULESCU v. ROMANIA , (Application no. 61496/08), dated 05/09/2017.

The Court held that in order to examine whether the right for private and family life (Article 8 of the Convention) is respected by the employer when monitoring real time, an employee’s commnications, the following factors should be considered:

1. whether sufficient notice of potential monitoring of the employee’s communications was given,
2. the degree of intrusion into the employee’s private life through real time monitoring,
3. whether there was a legitimate reason for the monitoring, and whether less intrusive methods could have been used to accomplish the intended purpose of detecting violations of the company’s regulations.

For a summary of the case see the Jurist website at this link.