| W.E.U Admin | Workplace Wellbeing
Background of the ECHR Judgment
In a case put before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), judges ruled that a company which had read an employee’s messages sent through Yahoo Messenger while he was at work was within its right to do so.
The ruling stated the man, an engineer in Romania, had breached company policy and his employer had a right to verify whether he was completing his work. The employee had asked the court to rule the employer had violated his right to confidential correspondence when it accessed his messages in 2007, before dismissing him after discovering he used the app to chat with his fiancée, brother, and professional contacts.
Key Findings
The ECHR judges concluded it was not “unreasonable that an employer would want to verify that employees were completing their professional tasks during working hours.” The company’s policy explicitly prohibited the use of the messaging app for personal conversations, reinforcing its position.
The court added:
“The employer acted within its disciplinary powers since, as the domestic courts found, it had accessed the Yahoo Messenger account on the assumption that the information in question had been related to professional activities and that such access had therefore been legitimate. The court sees no reason to question these findings.”
Implications for EU Employers
This ruling affects all EU countries that have ratified the European Convention on Human Rights, including Britain. It underlines that while employers retain the right to monitor workplace communications, unregulated snooping is not acceptable. The ECHR called on employers to implement clear monitoring policies that specify what information they may collect and how.
Related Articles
- Privacy at Work: ECHR Ruling Explained
- Workplace Snooping Guidelines: What Employers Need to Know
- Company Monitoring Policies Explained
workersofengland.co.uk | Independent Workers Trade Union
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