Use of personal data

Q: Our employer has started using the security computer system to check workers' hours for overtime purposes. It is normally only used for headcount purposes during a fire alarm. Is the employer allowed to do this?

A: If your employer is keeping records of workers coming into and leaving the site, this will amount to personal data and be covered by the Data Protection Act 1998. The employer will have to comply with the code of practice in employment, available from the Information Commissioner at www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/detailed_specialist_guides/employment_practices_code.pdf

Using the information for monitoring employees would be a change of use, so your employer would have to be able to justify this by showing that there was a need for it and there was not another, less intrusive way of achieving its aims. Unless it can provide evidence that workers have been falsifying overtime claims, it may not be able to show that covert monitoring is justified. But even if it can provide this evidence, it should consider other means of monitoring overtime first.