Bosses can’t spy on staff emails, say Euro judges

BOSSES must warn staff if they plan to spy on their work emails and phone calls, European judges said yesterday.

The European Court of Human Rights said firms have no absolute right to snoop on employees during office hours and must comply with strict rules.

They ruled that a Romanian company breached the human rights of an engineer sacked for using a messaging service to speak to his family. Overturning a previous decision, the court said Bogdan Barbulescu’s privacy had been breached.

He claimed bosses unfairly accessed chats with his partner and brother about ‘intimate’ issues including sexual health.

The Strasbourg court said his right to a private life had been infringed even though the firm’s rules stated its equipment was not for personal use.

The decision will not be affected by Brexit because the court’s human rights rulings stem from UK membership of the Council of Europe, not the EU. But the ruling is not directly enforceable in the UK.

Esther Lynch, of the European Trade Union Confederation, said: ‘This set of requirements will restrict to an important extent the employers’ possibilities to monitor workers’ electronic communications. Although it does not generally prohibit such monitoring, it sets high thresholds for its justification. This is a very important step.’

James Froud, of law firm Bird & Bird, said future cases could see judges ordering firms to detail how they give workers ‘space to have a private life’.