Labour sounds warning over digital snooping of home workers

LONDON: Labour is demanding that ministers review “woefully outdated” protections after a survey suggested a rise in digital monitoring of employees working from home during the pandemic.

Shadow digital minister Chi Onwurah said further data protection was needed to guard home workers against being snooped on “without their informed consent”.According to a YouGov/Skillcast survey, 12 per cent of all firms have already implemented remote tracking software, with that growing to 16 per cent at larger firms. A tenth of the 2,009 companies interviewed for the poll between October 27 and November 4, 2020 confirmed they were considering introducing digital forms of employee tracking.

As well as the YouGov survey, Labour said research by the Trade Union Congress found that one in seven workers reported that monitoring and surveillance at work had increased during the coronavirus crisis, with millions no longer commuting into the office in a bid to halt the spread of the disease.

As well as keeping a check on emails, messages and meeting attendance, online software can log how long it takes people to reply and record camera shots, the party said.

Artificial intelligence is increasingly playing a role in redundancy decisions, according to the TUC. Labour is calling for the Code of Employment Practices from the Information Commissioner’s Office to be updated in light of the rapid changes to how people are working during the recent spate of lockdowns.

The opposition party is also calling for any use of personal data through surveillance to be subject to a data protection impact assessment, as well as consultation with employees and trade unions, before it is introduced.

Ms Onwurah said: “Guidance and regulation to protect workers are woefully outdated in light of the accelerated move to remote working and rapid advancements in technology.“The bottom line is that workers should not be digitally monitored without their informed consent, and there should be clear rules, rights and expectations for both businesses and workers.

“Ministers must urgently provide better regulatory oversight of online surveillance software to ensure people have the right to privacy whether in their workplace or home – which are increasingly one and the same.”