Cyberliberty advocate Yaman Akdeniz notes that under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act there are laws for business practice legislations developed by the Department of Trade and Industry. The Act uses wide powers for employers to intercept all forms of communication including telephone and Internet communication. Akdeniz believes the monitoring of employees goes too far.
"I can understand that certain communications have the potential for abuse," he says. "Where a system is going to be hacked, for example, you need to monitor communication.
"When it comes to content of communication, there needs to be clear-cut regulation. The internal regulations need to be open and transparent, and you as an employee need to know what sort of practice is employed by your employer," he says.
Robertson stresses the importance of managing the layoff process to minimise the risk of an employee backlash. "In the UK things would have been slightly different concerning the HP case for example, because in a layoff situation there are obligations to consult employees and manage the process. In the UK such acts of sabotage would be against the employee's duty of good faith in their dealings which they owe to an employer and like in the US they can get sued for those actions."
She said that communicating with employees gives them a chance to vent their spleen, as well as to better understand why they are being laid off. The UK is ahead of the US in this aspect, Robertson believes; in the US there is no minimum period of employment, and workers can arrive at the office to find that they've been "pink slipped" -- that their jobs are simply over.
Even so, employers here need to be extremely cautious when cutting the jobs of people who may handle significant intellectual property, Robertson says: "That includes monitoring emails, it includes making sure that whilst a person is still an employee, going through their computer and deconstructing what they might have removed from your system."
She recommends that employees be monitored beginning when it is announced that there will likely be terminations. Most employers regularly monitor their employees' computer use during their employment and monitor how much time their employees use to do their Internet shopping, for example.
Experts insist that problems like the Norton Rose case in December 2000, where a law firm employee was caught forwarding an email containing sensitive personal details on a global scale, could have been avoided. The majority of firms now have email policies in place that can ensure similar email abuse is stopped.
