HR Articles

In an age where employees are easily able to copy, store and upload confidential information, employers are having to become increasingly vigilant to prevent such information ending up in the wrong hands.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has recently prosecuted an employee who transferred information about his company’s clients before moving to a new job.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) have fined Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust £180,000 after it revealed the email addresses of 781 users of an HIV service. Patients using the HIV service were sent a newsletter which mistakenly included all recipients email addresses in the ‘to’ field instead of the 'bcc' field.

The recent High Court decision of Axon v Ministry of Defence and News Group Newspapers Ltd suggests that employers can be held vicariously liable for their employees’ breaches of confidence and privacy.

What’s it all about? The existing law on data protection within the EU is based on a European directive introduced over 20 years ago.

In the recent case of Garamukanwa v Solent NHS Trust an employer was held not to have breached an employee’s right to a private and family life (under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights) when it reviewed private material belonging to the employee on the basis that the information related to work issues and had a potential impact on work.

Summary • The rapid development of the internet of things and monitoring technology in the workplace has brought into focus the tension between employees’ right to privacy and employers’ business interests