Hi Renata - A member of my DWG has raised concerns about CCTV being put in the break room as a measure against lunches being allegedly stolen from the fridge. She is concerned that this may raise psychosocial health issues related to surveillance, as the footage could also be used to surveil staff using the break room, and may create a culture of mistrust.
Do you have any information about workplace surveillance as a psychosocial health issue we could raise with the employer? Or any other advice on this one?
Your colleague’s concerns that CCTV cameras in the lunchroom contribute to a culture of mistrust is valid. The growing use of surveillance in our workplaces poses a significant risk to workers’ psychological and physical health and safety. Introducing CCTV cameras to control alleged lunch theft is a very short-sighted and knee-jerk response. Such a measure is simply introducing unnecessary hazards into the workplace.
Although surveillance in the workplace is not explicitly addressed in OHS legislation in Victoria, intrusive workplace surveillance can exacerbate other hazards such as poor workplace relationships and low job control. It can also increase physical hazards by discouraging employees from taking breaks and enforcing a faster work pace.
Additionally, employers have a duty to provide a safe workplace so far as is reasonably practicable under section 21 of the OHS Act 2004. Considering this, the impacts of these technologies on workers’ health and safety must be controlled.
In June 2024 the Victorian Parliament announced an inquiry into workplace surveillance that you can read about here. The inquiry report released earlier this year highlighted that existing laws are inadequate to protect workers. Figures released in the inquiry report showed that 53% of NTEU members reported being monitored in their workplaces. An identified area of great concern is ‘function creep’ – where surveillance data collected for one purpose is used for another.
You can find some helpful information on our website at the intrusive surveillance and monitoring page. Here we specifically discuss what HSRs can do about intrusive workplace surveillance, provide links for further reading and also a link to our live show on the issue featuring Matt Scherer from the Centre for Democracy and Technology. In addition, this year’s HSR Conference “Reps against the machine” is all about surveillance and giving HSRs the skjills and knowledge to address the risk - if you would like to be notified as soon as conference registrations are open, fill out our expression of interest form.
If your employer is introducing new surveillance technologies, they must consult you on their rollout given the impact these technologies could have on the psychosocial and/or physical health of workers as highlighted in the examples above. We strongly encourage you to remind your employer of their s.35 consultation obligations under our OHS Act should they begin to implement workplace surveillance. To comply with consultation obligations under s.35(3) your employer must provide information, give employees a reasonable opportunity to express their views and then take that feedback into account.
Another approach could be to negotiate clauses in an Enterprise Agreements regulating how ‘bossware’ will be used. For example, requiring that the footage will not be used to performance manage or be continually monitored, but only accessed in instances of allegations of theft, fraud, violence or a workplace incident or injury.
If you have any questions about OHS we encourage to fill out an Ask Renata query and one of our officials will get back to you shortly. Alternatively give Ask Renatabot a try!
