Secretly Recording Staff

ttilting

Hi there. just looking for feedback on this issue.

If an employer, , , as part of a mystery shopping process wants to secretly record the interaction between the employee & mystery shopper.

What are the employers obligations in relation to

Getting permission from the Staff member - (written ? Implied ? )
Advising the Staff member of this process -

Details on the company storing this information etc .

Any feedback appreciated.
I am coming at this as a potential staff member concerned that express permission was not asked for.

(Note - this is a 'routine process' , and not done as part an investigation into an individual)

Kind Regards

GerardKeating

ttilting wrote: »

Hi there. just looking for feedback on this issue.

If an employer, , , as part of a mystery shopping process wants to secretly record the interaction between the employee & mystery shopper.

What are the employers obligations in relation to

Getting permission from the Staff member - (written ? Implied ? )
Advising the Staff member of this process -

Details on the company storing this information etc .

Any feedback appreciated.
I am coming at this as a potential staff member concerned that express permission was not asked for.

(Note - this is a 'routine process' , and not done as part an investigation into an individual)

Kind Regards

Does the Store have "normal" CCTV and suitable signage for same?

ttilting

No, It's not a retail set up as such.

No Recording devices would normally be in place in the location the (audio) recording is taking place.

ttilting

cheeky bump :-)

ScouseMouse

The guidelines we have, as a retail outlet, is that there must be a sign to alert people the store has CCTV.

Once the sign is displayed, it is ok to record images on the premises.

seamus

My gut feeling is that the company are allowed to do this so long as the staff are notified in advance that these secret shoppers will be doing this and will be recording with cameras. They wouldn't expressly need the staff members' permission to do so.

Using the recording as evidence in disciplinary or legal proceedings would be a different matter altogether, but using it as a means to assess a staff member and pinpoint areas of improvement or training wouldn't be an issue IMO.

Since the company would only be recording the interaction between the shopper and employee and nothing else outside of this, I don't see there being any issue with expectations of privacy and so forth.

It would be folly though for any business to do such a thing without consulting their solicitors for advice.

leeroybrown

The Data Protection Commissioner has guidelines on this. They'll give an idea as to the employer's responsibilities with CCTV.

ttilting

thanks for responses so far,

Could anyone advise what might arise if the employee decided to send a letter to the employer to 'opt out'.

This customer - employee contact is a one hour discussion and recorded with a hidden microphone in a pen / hand bag etc by a third party company.

Can I (for example) as employee request to opt out of this process due to concerns about the safety of the data in the hand of the traveling mystery shopper?

seamus

An hour??

That sounds more like a meeting than a standard interaction and then I would be of the opinion that the person with the camera would be obliged to notify you that the meeting is being recorded because there's a reasonable expectation of privacy in said meeting.

I know you're being deliberately vague, but if the mystery shopper is recording in a supermarket, then there's no reasonable expectation of privacy and the employee only needs to be told the possibility that they may be recorded.

If on the other hand, it's some other environment where the customer sits down with the employee to discuss a matter (think mortgage brokers), then there would be a reasonable expectation of privacy on both sides, and either side would be required to declare the existence of the camera before proceeding with the meeting. Much the same as when a company's phone system tells you, "Your call may be recorded for training purposes".

IANAL and all that, and it's just my 2c, but from what I know, the expectation of privacy is what the legality of recording revolves around.

In the case of a public environment (such as a supermarket), I don't know if an employee can "opt out" without requesting to be transferred to a private part of the business. In a private situation, the camera must be declared and the employee may then "opt out" by refusing to go ahead with it.

ttilting

Thanks Seamus,

Yes you are not too far off the mortgage example.

There is no camera in this case. (as far as I'm aware)

It's an audio recording device held covertly (in pen / hand bag etc) by person who Is pretending to be a customer. (to use your example .. pretending to have their mortgage reviewed based on fabricated data etc)

The fake customer (third party company) then sends the recorded material to it's head office (uk) and it is accessed by the employees manger (Ireland) through a log on etc.

This practice is not based on a suspicion the employee is doing something wrong. . . . merely quality control, and a means of giving said employee a 'rating' an is justified based on ''consumer protection'' .

I suppose the key question is , are the employee's rights infringed by this. It would be my contention that they absolutely would be, given the length of the consultation .... but would a solicitor/ or judge see it that way?

Any advice appreciated.

seamus

Very hard to say tbh. My gut says that provided that it's to be used for quality control - i.e. reviewed only by appropriate personnel, destroyed/deleted soon after and not used for disciplinary or evaluation purposes - then it may be perfectly OK to do this so long as the employee is notified that such a thing may occur.

In reality though, I would suggest talking to nera (http://www.employmentrights.ie/en/) if this is something being proposed which you're not comfortable with.

If they can't give you any answers, then a consultation with a solicitor would be worth it.

We're getting a little too specific and grey-area'd here to give further advice IMO.