Monitoring of workers' personal data via entrance control systems

[Celerity]

Preventing 1984-style monitoring of workers requires a rebalancing of workplace power, based on fair legal regulation and human dignity.

https://socialeurope.eu/monitoring-of-workers-personal-data-via-entrance-control-systems



The monitoring of job applicants and workers, inside and outside the workplace—variously by computers, mobiles, artificial intelligence, video cameras and wearables, besides geolocation and identification methods—has become so much more common with the pandemic as to now constitute a regular part of working life. With the digital transformation, these practices lead to the processing of current, prospective and former workers’ personal data in a much less costly, but more intrusive, way than before.

In this context, the processing of personal data can be defined as any operation—collection, use, recording, erasure and storage—applied to any kind of information related to the applicant and worker. Yet it is in the employment relationship that the right to the protection of personal data is constantly violated. An equitable balance thus needs to be struck in the era of digitalisation, between the applicant’s and the worker’s rights to privacy and protection of their personal data and the employer’s economic and personal interests.

Electronic and biometric control systems

Among the monitoring practices frequently involved, employers resort to electronic and biometric systems for control of entrance or access, to register the times, frequency and security of workers entering and leaving the workplace. These control systems identify and record the areas of the workplace visited by workers during the day and how long they have been there.

Electronic systems perform control via a personal identification number (PIN) or magnetic or chip card (smart card). Such systems are versatile and practical for the employer but workers also use such cards, for identification and access to printers, photocopiers and vending machines, as a payment tool in the cafeteria or to determine for themselves when they enter and leave the workplace and record their working times.

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