Is it legal to secretly record conversations in work?

[retainertrainer]

I suspect my work colleague is recording me and another colleague when she’s out of the office.

I think she’s doing it to find out if we’re talking about her (and her behaviour/work ethic).

Is this legal? It’s weird I know!

It is not a criminal offence. However, it could be a breach of your privacy and, if she shares the recordings with someone else, it could be a criminal offence. More to the point in a work situation, your employer would almost certainly take a very dim view of this.

Happened in our workplace. HR went crazy.

Thanks everyone. It does seem like a grey area. I suppose there’s nothing we can do unless she shares it or we can prove it. I posted in chat too and the reply said it is illegal if she hasn’t told us she’s recording us.

I would think it contravenes every single HR rule under the sun - EXCEPT for when you tell people the conversation is being recorded, which happens all the time at my work because of the number of international team meetings we have.

I would have some fun with this. Can you have a body under the patio conversation thread? Or you and your colleague have won the lottery on a joint ticket and you're wondering how long you need to keep working?

I was just going to post the same as TwitterQueen, talk about some really outrageous to get her to out herself.

Talk to HR about your suspicions - do not try to set up your own workplace sting!

Whatever needs to be done, needs to be done carefully and professionally - bugging your workplace is not coming from a balanced person!

Unless your HR are useless, in which case TwitterQueens suggestion, complete with live updates over half term - you'd break mumsnet

Thanks everyone. I should know tomorrow if she’s actually done it or not. If she heard the things we’d been saying I don’t think she’ll be able to act ‘normal’ around us. (We we’re discussing work ethic/difficulties working with her and she’s not calm at the best of times).

This cropped up on another thread from the POV of the one recording.

It looks like it's legal only if the person recording is actually part of the conversation from what I can find, but is NOT legal if the person making the recording isn't there.

Generally it’s illegal if the person/s don’t know they’re being recorded. I’m in Aus though and the laws differ across states but for 99% of it that case would definitely be illegal.

Have you seen any recording equipment, does she leave her phone on record.