Don’t be a Law Breaker: Do you Know Tracking Laws of your Area?
Are you aware of relevant legislations regarding basic human rights of your employees especially while tracking their location or time, using devices like cellular phones, computers or tablets by employing GPS or web based technologies?
Technological advancement only requires technical creativity and expertise embedded in an individual or a group of professionals which can lead to technological development/advancement and progress in a blink of an eye. Whereas, in comparison, the development and implementation of laws requires mass based consensus which demands harmony between broad-based stakeholders and efficiency at the public sector institutions, which is usually sluggish and slow. We as a society have seen this pattern often that lawmakers lag far behind in ensuring public legal welfare in the face of business and technical progress. This prevalent scenario burdens the entrepreneurs and managers with being extra vigilant about the status of relevant legislation and safeguarding their clientele.
Laws relating to employee tracking are in different stages of development in different regions. They are also in a dynamic phase as they intend to cater to many innovative fields of businesses.
As an entrepreneur, besides being involved in the development and management of your business, you must adopt a proactive approach in the legal arena as well. Information that most of the regulators require from you to protect basic human rights of your employees include:
- How the surveillance is done
- What type of devices are used?
- What will be the duration of the surveillance?
- Will it be an uninterrupted or irregular surveillance activity?
- Who will be monitored; all or selected few employees and why?
- Who will have access to the surveillance data?
- How the employer intends to use the data
- Have the person being tracked given consent
- Do the employees have a right to give feedback?
Your tracking policy must ensure that:
- The collected data is ONLY used for business purposes
- Data is collected ONLY when the employee is working
- Your employee is well informed about the professional and organizational benefits of the tracking activity
- The data collection procedures are transparent and well documented
- It is always a good idea to engage experts while exploring a sensitive area like legal obligations. Get help from an experienced HR professional or a corporate lawyer.
