My boss is monitoring staff via CCTV. Is this legal?

esj13

Basically as the title says, my manager has been monitoring staff via the CCTV system.
I have been in the office and almost every day he brings in the night staff file in which night staff have to write down the times at which they complete hourly building checks and complete a cleaning log.
He checks these times and then rolls back the CCTV to check thair authenticity.
It concerns me as one week in four I work nights and I know that he will do the same with me. It's not an issue because all the jobs get done and I know he can't have any ammo on me.
He has recently been suspended from work due to a grievance that was place by a member of staff for his conduct and comments made by him and the way he treats staff.
I was called in as a witness on this and I mentioned the CCTV to the directors conducting the investigation and they said that they think he should check on staff to make sure theyre doing what they should and not be asleep.

I have looked in the conpany CCTV policy and it states very clearly that: "Staff will not be routinely monitored by the use of CCTV equipment."
"Staff have the right to view any images recorded of them, so long as they can provide grounds for reasonable cause."

I am wondering if anyone can tell me where this stands in a legal way. Is this an invasion on staff privacy?

swingaloo

At both the place I work and also the place my sister works there is CCTV monitoring constantly.

I think that as long as you are made aware that they are recording it is perfectly legal.

It happens in shops all the time.

I don't understand why it would be a problem. How can it be an invasion of privacy when you are at your workplace?

esj13

All CCTV is recorded and I understand that and that is fine.
But he is actively looking back through the archive footage to spy on staff at work.

Which as I've said, contradicts the company's CCTV policies.

swingaloo

Still don't understand your issue. At out place the bosses are often gathered around the cameras checking on things. Surely its only the same as if he was standing watching you work. If everyone is doing as they should what is the problem with a manager watching you.

I would take the 'staff will not be routinely monitored' as meaning they will not be sitting watching you all through the shift. But surely there would be no point in them having the cameras if they did not look at the footage to check things.

falko89

Mine does that all the time, If you're away from your work station to long he will also come down to see what's going on. Another one of his favourites is to remotely log onto your computer to see what you're doing.

aileth

Happened at my last retail job. Boss would literally sit in the office where the monitor was and watch you while stuffing her piggy face with chocolate for hours on end, then if you were displeasing her she would call down to the front desk, even when you were serving a customer, and demand you do X, Y or Z.

RobertoMoir

swingaloo wrote: »

Still don't understand your issue.

That it's against their employer's company policy on CCTV. You know, like they said in their post.

lincroft1710

falko89 wrote: »

Mine does that all the time, If you're away from your work station to long he will also come down to see what's going on. Another one of his favourites is to remotely log onto your computer to see what you're doing.

It's a poor boss who doesn't know what his staff are doing at any particular time.

RobertoMoir

lincroft1710 wrote: »

It's a poor boss who doesn't know what his staff are doing at any particular time.

A boss whose best/only motivational tactic is "I might be watching you..." shouldn't be in charge of putting on their own shoes unattended, let alone supervising other people.

There's a difference between that and knowing what your staff are doing.

Takeaway_Addict

lincroft1710 wrote: »

It's a poor boss who doesn't know what his staff are doing at any particular time.

A very vague post, no single boss will ever know what each employee is doing 100% of the time. That is where an element of trust comes into it.

lincroft1710

RobertoMoir wrote: »

A boss whose best/only motivational tactic is "I might be watching you...

I don't recall referring to any "motivational tactic" in my post, just that a boss should know what his staff are doing. He pays them to do a job, he needs to ensure they are doing that job.