Companies can track their employees when they are travelling for business as long as they “objectively justify” why they are doing it.
Employment lawyer Louise Randall, from UK-based firm Shoosmiths, said that employers had to make it clear to their staff why they wanted to track them on work trips.
“You are the employer who is sending somebody to country X for the purposes of work – therefore you can tell the employee what they can do there,” said Randall, during a seminar in London on duty of care, risk and compliance, organised by technology firm Concur.
“You should explain to employees why you are doing it – is it because you’re responsible for health and safety, or do you want to know that they’re in the place where they should be?” added Randall. “There’s a balance between this and data protection – you need to objectively justify why you are doing it.”
Declan Meighan, global security director at travel assistance firm Healix International, said that the company had clients which tracked their staff constantly when travelling.
“We have heard of companies and work with companies who have forced it,” he said. “If you want to work for these companies and travel, your movements will be tracked 24/7.
“This is an extremely bullish approach – on the flipside, individuals want data protection because it’s their civil right. They can also say that their company has no responsibility to know what they’re doing out-of-hours.
“I’m not keen on forcing individuals to be tracked. If they want to alert security management teams of their location, they can do so. We can give them the functionality to do this.”
One buyer at the session said that a survey of staff had shown that 75% were happy to be tracked while travelling.
Randall said that it was also vital for firms to educate and train staff on their policies and procedures.
“You have to make sure they are known about across the board – it’s not good enough just to put them on the company intranet,” she said.
“Make sure employees are aware of these policies and procedures, and are taking responsibility for following them. You have to help them to know where the line is and what you expect them to do.”
She added that duty of care remained “consistent” no matter how travel bookings are made.
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