Polish labor code dictates strict rules regarding workplace surveillance, outlining permissible purposes, restricted areas, and employee notification requirements.
When is Workplace Monitoring Legal?
Workplace video monitoring isn’t permitted as a general precaution. The Polish Labor Code allows it only when necessary for specific purposes.
These purposes include securing property, protecting life and health, and preventing crime. A general organizational interest isn’t sufficient justification unless linked to one of these legally defined goals.
What Employers Can Record
Employers can record footage if legal prerequisites are met, meaning monitoring covers areas within and around the workplace, but only to the extent needed to achieve the legally defined purpose.
This can include recording areas to prevent theft, ensure employee safety, or investigate incidents, provided it directly serves the stated legal objective.
Greater intrusion into employee privacy requires stronger justification from the employer.
What Employers Generally Cannot Record
The Labor Code designates certain areas as generally off-limits to monitoring, including restrooms, changing rooms, cafeterias, smoking areas, and spaces used by the trade union.
Exceptions are possible only if monitoring is essential for a legally defined purpose and doesn’t infringe on employee dignity or personal rights.
Can Employers Record Audio?
Audio recording is a particularly problematic area. The Labor Code provides a basis for video monitoring, but not general audio surveillance. The Office for Protection of Personal Data clearly states that video monitoring regulations don’t authorize recording employee conversations.
Monitoring Email and Other Work Tools
The Labor Code allows employers to monitor employee work email, but only when necessary to ensure the organization of work and proper use of tools.
Such control must not violate the confidentiality of communications or other personal rights. Similar principles apply to monitoring other work tools, limited to controlling usage for legitimate purposes.
Employers don’t have the right to track every employee activity indiscriminately.
Employer Information Obligations
Employers can’t simply install cameras and begin recording. Regulations impose specific information obligations, requiring them to define monitoring rules in internal documents, inform employees at least two weeks before implementation, and clearly mark monitored areas.
How Long Can Recordings Be Stored?
The Labor Code stipulates that image recordings must be stored for no longer than three months from the date of recording.
This period extends until the final resolution of legal proceedings if the recording serves as evidence or if the employer is aware it might be needed as evidence.
After these periods, recordings containing personal data must be destroyed, unless other regulations dictate otherwise.
When Might Monitoring Violate Employee Rights?
Monitoring becomes legally problematic when it’s excessive, disproportionate, or implemented without a legitimate purpose. It also becomes problematic when it violates employee privacy or dignity.
Employees with doubts about the legality of monitoring should first verify whether the employer has fulfilled its information obligations and whether the monitoring serves a legitimate purpose.
Summary
Employers can use workplace monitoring, but their authority isn’t absolute. The law permits image monitoring only for specific purposes, imposes information obligations, and limits the scope of monitored areas and recording storage times. Legal monitoring must be necessary, proportionate, and properly implemented.
