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