Recently, Techweb, a technology website in China interviewed our lawyer for the company’s monitoring on employee’s chat, and the following is the digest of the interview:
Q: For the monitoring on phone call and online chat of the employees by the company, could you share us you opinion on it from the professional view?
A: For the monitoring on employee’s phone call and chat in working time, there’s no corresponding regulation in law, and we usually reply to our clients for such questions like this:
I. The privacy of employees is legally protected, therefore the said monitoring will definitely arouse argument, and accordingly it demands such monitoring within the legal permit and transparent.
II. As to the regulations, we suggest the company to clarify that no private matter shall be handled by the employees in working time or no office equipment shall be used for personal matters; furthermore, it’s also suggested to inform the employees that the company will record the employee’s using of the company computer, software or phone call. Surely, the aforesaid regulation shall be contained in the Employee Manual.
III. According to the Labor Contract Law, the passing of internal labor discipline shall through the discussion of workers congress or all the employees who will raise their own programs for revision or opinions, after that the draft shall be submitted to the labor union or workers representative. In practices, we would like to advice the company to go through the procedures mentioned above and publicize the rules for public opinions. When the draft passes after the public opinion, the signature for acceptance by the employees are also necessary for the guarantee of its legality.
IV. The privilege to access the monitored information shall also be set, such as regulating only with the signing by the management above the deputy general manager could thereby granted the authority to check the monitored information, and also such checks shall also be recorded for the prevention of any privacy of employees to be released.
It’s inevitable for employees to handle personal matters in working time, therefore how to take the balance is a task to the company and any failure or mistake in it may lead to the resistance or opposition at least from the employees.
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Author: Mr. You Yunting
Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Bridge IP Law Commentary
Partner & Attorney-at-law of Shanghai DeBund Law Offices
Email: Bridge@chinaiplawyer.com, Tel: 8621-5213-4900,
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Bridge IP Law Commentary is a website focus on the introduction of commercial laws in China, especially the intellectual property laws. All the posts here are our original works. And all news or cases referred here are from public reports, and our comments or analysis are of due diligence, neutrality and impartiality, representing our own opinions only and are our original works. You may contact us shall you have any opinions or suggestions.
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