A college secretary from Wales has won a
legal battle against her employers and the UK government after a
senior member of staff at the college secretly monitored her
personal communications for up to 18 months without her
consent.
The
European Court of Human Rights found that her
employers violated her right to privacy when they logged
details of her personal phone calls, analysed websites she
visited, and tracked her e-mail correspondence.
Lynette Copland, who works at Carmarthenshire College in west
Wales, sued her employer for breaching the Human Rights
convention.
Represented by human rights organisation Liberty, Copland was
awarded £2,100 in damages by the court for stress and anxiety
suffered in the workplace.
Liberty legal director James Welch said, “Employees don't leave
their personal privacy at the front door when they come to work
each day. This judgment makes perfectly clear that employers who
spy on their staff are infringing their privacy.”
Copland’s personal communications were monitored during 1998 and
1999 when there was no general right to privacy in English law.
The implementation of the Human Rights Act 1998 in 2000, and the
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 now legally protect
privacy rights in domestic law.
Employers must now ensure that employees are aware that their
communications could be monitored, and that there is a good reason
for such monitoring in every case.
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>>
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