
Issue No 88		16 March 2001

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Technology

Big Brother’s Legacy

By Michael Gadiel

Organisations with restrictive staff email polices risk locking themselves in the Industrial Age by treating their staff as units to be monitored.


	Labor Council's Michael Gadiel

As part of a union campaign for freedom of email in the workplace, the Labor Council is warning companies that the wrong approach towards the use of email in the workplace could have disastrous effects upon the organisational culture.

I addressed a recent round table discussion on the use of email in the workplace convened by Baltimore Technologies. My presentation raised the following issues:

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· Unions are campaigning for freedom of email in the workplace. Employees should be able to use their company email for reasonable personal use. Guidelines on "reasonable use" should be based applicable for use of the telephone.

· In NSW, employer use of Video Surveillance is regulated under the Video Surveillance in the Workplace Act. This act prohibits employers from the use of covert video surveillance to monitor employees without a permit issued by a Magistrate. Such surveillance must be conducted by a professional.

· Employers are prohibited from using covert video surveillance for measuring work performance. Overt video surveillance is permitted for reasons such as safety or security. Labor Council is opposed to the use of covert monitoring of workers email or the use of IT systems to secretly performance manage staff.

· The Labor Council is lobbying the NSW Government for the implementation of guidelines for email, based on those achieved for video surveillance.

· Open policies on use of email will lead to increased employee satisfaction and may reduce employee downtime by replacing telephone calls with email message. Progressive companies will find the benefits of a liberal email policy will outweigh the costs.

· The marginal cost of a simple text based email message is negligible. The costs imposed through an intensive regime of email monitoring are likely to outweigh the benefits, especially when taking into account the bad will generated amongst employees.

· Organisations that implement a regime of strict monitoring risk locking their corporate culture in the industrial age. Employees will feel that they being spied on by their employer and treated as some kind of internal enemy.

· The nature of IT systems lend themselves to command and control solutions. This is one of the more unsavoury aspects of IT culture. Organisations implementing strict regimes will quickly find their employees adopt an equally rigid approach in their relationship with their employer.

· Companies have an opportunity to define their new economy relationship with their employees, a flexible approach will result in a more open and flexible approach from employees. A new economy employer will want their employees to maintain a wide network of outside connections, recognising that they can provide perspective and add value to their work.

· NSW Government Policy - "Reasonable personal use of their Internet and E-mail should be consistent with such use of the telephone. It can include two way communication on trade union matters." This provision should be used as the industry standard.

· There are circumstances in which filtering of email may be necessary, this may be in situations involving:

o Discrimination

o harassment

o Transmitting Pornography

o Computer hacking

o Transmission of large files

o Use of unauthorised software

· The Labor Council's position is that where there are no issues with discrimination, harassment etc, then an employer should avoid the use of monitoring.

· If monitoring is necessary then employees should be aware that monitoring is occurring and they should be made aware of the policies that apply. Passive electronic filtering systems are preferable to human filtering since employees can be assured that the privacy of emails that remain within the guidelines will be protected.

· All monitoring and filtering should be overt - employees should be aware of the guidelines and policies that apply. Monitoring should not be used unless a problem has been identified. The employee should at all times be made aware of the level and type of electronic monitoring.

· There is a case involving an employee (Gencarelli)of Ansett where a union delegate was dismissed for distributing a union bulletin via the company's internal email system. The Federal Court ordered her re-instatement, on the grounds that the they were conducting their work as a union delegate and that the email did not expressly contravene the agreed guidelines under which employer communication devices could be used.

· The Labor Council is looking for a test case to run in the NSW Industrial Commission. A potential legal approach could be to seek an extension of the union noticeboard cases and an information age analogy of the union right of entry provision.

The Labor Council has called on NSW government to protect employee email privacy by law. The Government has been awaiting a NSW Law Reform Commission report into the issue.

If you believe that your employer's approach to email is inappropriate then email us and tell us what you think.

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  Issue 88 contents

Interview: Labor Law
Shadow Attorney General Robert McClelland outlines his plans for workers entitlements, legal aid and a Bill of Rights

Unions: Poetic Justice
The ACTU kicked off its 2001 Living Wage campaign this week with a new shock tactic: poetry.

Technology: Big Brother’s Legacy
Organisations with restrictive staff email polices risk locking themselves in the Industrial Age by treating their staff as units to be monitored.

Corporate: Scumbags Exposed
On the eve of the inaugural Corporate Scumbags Tour, we look at the worst of the worst from the Top End of Town.

International: Playing Away
Pat Ranald looks at a proposal to hold Australian companies to basic standards when they invest in developing countries.

Environment: Nuclear Titanics
The Maritime Union has joined Greenpeace in a campaign to stop our seas becoming a nuclear highway.

History: Out of the Bog
Neale Towart looks at the life of big Jim Larkin, one of the heroes of an Irish trade union movement that continues to thrive.

Politics: Westie’s Macquarie Street Alert
The Workers MLC, Ian West, provides the first in a series of regular rundowns on the upcoming Parliamentary session

Review: The Next American Century?
How will the United States maintain its global power in an era when the very notion of the nation-state is under challenge?

Satire: Dollar Crashes Through Psychological 0.00c Barrier
The bedevilled Australian dollar dropped below the crucial 0.00c barrier losing its battle to avoid the humiliation of being worth less than the commemorative Bradman coins distributed by the Sunday Telegraph last weekend.

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