Employers will be banned from monitoring staff e-mails and phone calls or using hidden video cameras in the office if tough draft proposals on workplace privacy are approved.
The Code of Practice on Monitoring and Personal Data Privacy at Work - which would also be applicable to employers of domestic helpers - was released by the Privacy Commissioner yesterday.
It would make employers liable for criminal prosecution if they spied on staff without first having evidence of 'criminal activity or serious wrongdoing'.
'This affects every working man and woman and it is really a question of respect,' Privacy Commissioner Raymond Tang Yee-bong said.
The draft code, which will undergo three months of consultation, does permit limited use of surveillance cameras and e-mail, telephone and computer monitoring but requires employers to notify workers of such policies.
Even then, employers can only check log details of e-mails and phone calls - such as when and to whom the communications were made - and not monitor the content. The exceptions are cases in which there are grounds for believing crimes or serious wrongdoing have taken place. Employers must show a clear need to gather evidence by covert monitoring and a clear time-frame for the exercise must be set, the draft code proposes.
The law also would allow employees to gain access to any information the company holds about them at any time.
