Green light to remote controls on employees, even with tablets and mobile phones as well as with cameras. But the employer must first inform them, according to the indications of the Privacy Guarantor. So what does the novelty introduced by the Jobs Act which modifies it Statute of workers? Labor consultants are investigating this topic that affects millions of people equipped with these technological tools that have now become commonly used in daily work.
The new rules affect Article 4 of the Statute. The new text provides that in addition to audiovisual systems, they can also be used work tools also provided to the employee to remotely monitor his activity. These controls can be used "for all purposes - establishes the new law - related to the employment relationship" therefore also for disciplinary purposes.
A new opportunity for the employer who, however, will have to give the worker a "adequate information on how to use the tools and carry out the checks”, in compliance with the Privacy Code. In practice, this means that the information provided to the employee must not be generic and rather must explain in a complete and exhaustive way how the checks can be carried out, with what tools and under what circumstances.
For example, an employer who installs software on a company mobile phone will be able to carry out checks on his employee's work activities, from phone calls to emails, via applications, obviously not before duly informing him of such checks and without ever cross the line of employee privacy.
So how to get back within these parameters? Basically, the employer has the right to control but if he intends to make use of it, he will have to do it in a transparent way and "without tricks from damages by the worker". Therefore, in the opinion of the specialists, it will be good to also provide “positive” indications to clearly clarify the demarcation line, for example, between e-mail accounts (private and corporate) that can “cohabit” on the same corporate smartphone. Another case could be that of the company car that can also be used for private trips. Last month the Minister of Labor Giuliano Poletti had explained that for remote controls the Government had intervened on article 4 of the Workers' Statute with respect to privacy, “filling a regulatory vacuum. Today – he added – we have an overall regulation with two objectives at the centre: a clear and defined regulation and respect for privacy”. It will probably be the jurisprudence that clarifies some uncertainties left by the legislator.
