Employees' Privacy at Home

©Institute of Management press release 24.8.01, Financial Times 24.8.01

Managers in the UK are being advised that if they telephone employees at home they might be contravening Human Rights legislation and could face legal action. The advice is being given by the Institute of Management (IM) to its 89,000-strong membership, which is made up of company chairmen, chief executives, directors and senior, middle and junior managers.

A document inserted into the latest issue of the IM's magazine, Professional Manager, informs members that under the Human Rights Act of 1998, which came into force in October last year, telephone calls made to an employee at home might be held to be an invasion of privacy.

It says: "An employer does not have the right to demand an employee's telephone number, unless it is specified in the contract that the employee has a duty to be available outside normal working hours."

Bosses are further told: "Even when an employee has indicated a willingness to be called at home, managers should respect privacy and not make unnecessary or inappropriate calls."

Article 8 of the Act states: "Everyone has the right to respect for their private and family life, their home and their correspondence."

Mary Chapman, director general of the Institute of Management, said: "The Human Rights Act is an important piece of legislation, potentially far-reaching in its impact across the whole of society. It will only be through individual cases that its application will become clear. It is important for us to in-form our members and encourage them to reflect on its implications for them in the workplace." In the guidelines, the IM says that employees are under no obligation to divulge their addresses other than for the purpose of receiving "routine correspondence" in connection with their employment, such as salary slips. "An employee may complain that excessive or inappropriate correspondence constitutes a breach of Article 8," the Institute warns.

The Act incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and allows British citizens to enforce their Human Rights in UK courts and tribunals, instead of having to resort to the European Court in Strasbourg.

The guidelines warn that "unauthorised monitoring" of telephone calls and e-mails made by an employee on company premises also is covered by Article 8, even when the employer suspects that a member of staff is using its resources in a personal capacity. The IM says a manager may be able to argue that interception is reasonable if it can be shown that employees had been told that such behaviour was a disciplinary offence, and that checks would be made where appropriate to detect breaches of company regulations.

But solicitors questioned whether the act could be used in this way. Geoffrey Bindman, a leading human rights lawyer, said: "It would be difficult to establish unless the job was such that it was reasonably necessary for the employer to be able to contact the employee outside office hours."

The Confederation of British Industry said: "Employees' privacy should be respected, but sometimes the needs of businesses must take precedence."