A case has been reported from the US where a woman claimed she has been fired for removing an app from her phone which allowed her employers to track her every move.
The App, Xora was used by the company to monitor employees out working in the field. The employee stated she had no problem with being monitored whilst at work, but the app did not differentiate between working hours and none working hours giving her supervisors the ability to track her movements whilst she was not working.
The employee challenged her employers about the issue and they admitted that employees could be monitored and bragged that they knew her specific movements and even how fast she was driving.
The employee believed it was an invasion of privacy and deleted the app from her phone. She stated her employer expected her to ‘tolerate’ the intrusion. Soon after deleting the app she was fired.
If the employee’s account is correct, the matter was handled terribly by the employer. Any monitoring should be proportionate and it would be difficult if not impossible for an employer to make a case to state that such monitoring of someone’s private life was justified.
Any employers considering bringing disciplinary actions against employees who refuse to be monitored in a way which could overlap with their private life should be cautious. Take advice and consider whether there are any other more proportionate ways of monitoring your employee’s behaviour if it is required by the business.
If this was case being heard in the UK, the employer would likely struggle to show that their actions were those of a reasonable employer. Instances of disciplinary relating to tracking devices in vehicles are not unheard of, or cases of misconduct for private social media use, it is therefore not inconceivable that something like this could present itself in the UK.
No comments:
Post a Comment