HR says firms should respect staff’s e-mail privacy

Seven
out of 10 HR professionals believe employers should not have the right to open
all staff e-mails.

In
a personneltoday.com News Barometer poll of 263 HR professionals, 70 per cent
(183) said that employers should not have the right to open staff e-mails. Only
three out of 10 (79) believe that companies should be able to open all
employees’ e-mails.

The
survey’s result runs against the final draft version of the Data Protection Act
monitoring code that allows employers to open e-mails if there is evidence
employees are breaking the law.

Diane
Sinclair, lead adviser on public policy at the CIPD, said: “I am not surprised
by the outcome of the survey as employers have always respected staffs privacy.
Employers are not interested in their staff’s private lives.

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"But
there are concerns where employers are liable for inappropriate content and
what staff do during work hours.”

By
Paul Nelson