Covert recording

Awaythrow14

As an employer, is it legal to secretly record a disciplinary meeting with an employee?

harr

Awaythrow14 wrote: »

As an employer, is it legal to secretly record a disciplinary meeting with an employee?

No...or to record the conversation for that matter. Any covert CCTV in a business is generally not allowed as all staff must be made aware where the cameras are.

davo10

harr wrote: »

No...or to record the conversation for that matter. Any covert CCTV in a business is generally not allowed as all staff must be made aware where the cameras are.

I thought the audio recording of any conversation is legal provided one of the parties involved gave consent?

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

coylemj

davo10 wrote: »

I thought the audio recording of any conversation is legal provided one of the parties involved gave consent?

'one of the parties' - you mean the guy doing the recording?

It's legal as long as one side knows about it :rolleyes:

Really Interested

http://www.mcdowellpurcell.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Digital-Workplace-slides-FINAL-04-03-2015.pdf

See slide 28 and 29.

CCTV Monitoring & Covert Recordings (8)
Whether the employee is entitled to use the iPhone recording in a subsequent unfair dismissal case?
 No specific rules for admissibility of covertly obtained evidence
 Generally a wide discretion – if evidence is relevant and it would be proportionate to allow it, then it may be admitted

Case Law (UK):
 Chairman and Governor of Amwell View School v Dogherty UK EAT/0243/06 – covert recording of the disciplinary hearing itself will generally be admissible but a recording of private deliberations of the disciplinary panel are inadmissible (save in special circumstances).
 Punjab National Bank v Gosain UK EAT/0003/14 – private discussions of the panel during the adjournments of grievance and disciplinary hearings were admissible as evidence.
 Scott Kilday v MGM International (2014) – Bra company ordered to pay £16k compensation for constructive dismissal for bugging employee’s pot plant.

atego

Is it legal ( re GDPR etc) to secretly record a meeting ?

Lenar3556

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120655336#Comment_120655336

It would depend on the circumstances. In the more typical examples of covert recording, it would be unlikely that a criminal offence would arise.

There could potentially be GDPR considerations surrounding the making of an audio or video recording, but again it would depend on the circumstances.

I'm now familiar with a number of guys in family law cases whose covert recordings have been accepted in court. In each case what was said fundamentally undermined the credibility of the witness/their wives. The most notorious example is of the wife threatening if he didn't do something she would ring AGS and accuse him of threatening to rape her so the judge heard this recording and decided it was directly relevant to everything.

The most recent guy was accused of 'harrassment' for recording threats and allegations she made against him, but the DPP decided not to prosecute as there was no evidence that his recording was consistent/a pattern. She'll no doubt be back with further criminal allegations against him as a tactic in stalling the civil case/sale of the family home in which she is now the sole resident due to earlier, successful iterations of the same tactic.