Is my work allowed to tape conversations without consent??

[outinthesticksmummy]

Am feeling very pissed off!!!

Bit of a long story. I work in a shop that has CCTV for obvious reasons, they have a microphone hidden in the ceiling above the till.

Yesterday My Manager didn't turn up to work, neither did the Assistant Manager, apparently they had made an arrangement between themselves but had neglected to tell everyone else. Our main bosses do not allow this to happen; they say if managers off, Ass manager has to be there:fair eneough - but my manager is a complete walkover and does not enforce this (Ass Manager just says NO! and won't come in if its her allocated day off)

Myself and a colleague were discussing the situation during our tea break, sat behind the till, basically we were saying he had no balls was a crap wet manager, even the customers thought so blah blah blah......also said Ass manager needs to show more respect. This was a private conversation. However the following day, manager comes back to work and checks the CCTV footage and listens in to our conversation, now the shit is hitting the fan!!!!

Are they allowed to do this?? listen into our private conversation, with no reason without our consent????? also they are permenantly recording any conversation we have with our conversations with customers with out their knowledge. Surely it must be illegal or against our human rights or something??

Sorry for the ramble but I am mad!!!!

They can yes, and it's happened before with tragic circumstances

You might want to look up privacy international and see what they have to say about it.

But you knew it was there. Why didn't you wait till you were away from it to badmouth the boss?

god dunno

I know its inadmissable as evidence in, say, court or an employment tribunal.

I do have a feeling that its allowed, though hardly good practice

I do think that if you know its there, you probably have no case. Legally, you are almost certainly accepting it as a term of your contract by not making a fuss and getting on with it.

would like to be proven wrong though!

Cos i'm stupid! only work 3 days a week, and didn't realise he listened to it. Forget its there to be honest.

ah but you did KNOW it was there?

ok. you've buggered up then. Sorry. Like I say, I'm pretty sure they can use whatever surveillance they want, but they definately have every right to stick a microphone there and tell you about it.

Can you not stick something OVER the microphone?

Yeah, okay they got me!! Must admitt theough my boss is a crap manager and what i said on there, i have actaully said to his face and would do again.

What about our customers though, they don't know its there and they are being taped??

at the tape though!!

hmmmmm, I don't know actually.the legislation is mainly about intercepting telephone conversations.
and the example quoted was OK because the company was investigating a crime. not really the same thing.
I think it is a complicated piece of law. do you have a union? in your shoes I would think about going to the CAB and asking for their advice tbh.

CAB is a good idea, if things get any hairier, no union as its only a pet shop.

Hopefully he's just suffering from a dented ego, and he'll just sulk for a few days then come good again??

ah no but I am not sure that they can USE the information against you

am 90% sure that it would not be admissible at tribunal to prove, say, -god i dunno. I am struggling to think of how being rude about your boss would actually justify dismissal

are you worried? how long have you been there? if more than a year i'd have thought you're ok (p/t ness makes no odds)

We have cctv but no microphone. We do have signs outside by the pumps and in the shop saying 'you are being recorded for your own safety' type signs.

The thing is you are not going to be taken into a tribunal for badmouthing the manager, so forget about inadmisability (but write and date everything down in case a dissmisal follows in the short term.

I think the only thing you can do now is to apologise, and do your work the best you can so the boss can forget about it (unfair, I know, but unfortunately, whether we like it or not, our jobs depend on the opinion of our bosses).

no, they couldn't use it in a tribunal afaik

BUT it is not that straightforward

if she has been there for more than a year, they bascially cannot sack her for this

but if not-it gets a lot tricker.

Re customers.

It is against the law to record my converstaions without informing me.

That's why when you call an office etc they say 'some calls may be recorded for training purposes and quality control' etc

outinthesticksmummy they can record you as long as you know it's there, which you did. Did you know there was a microphone and they were recording audio as well?
If they try and discipline you for it you could potentially argue they were using the monitoring for an improper purpose, as as far as you were aware it was only there for the purpose of monitoring customers for theft etc.
However, you were on your break, and you are allowed to have an opinion about your manager and you are allowed to express that opinion to your colleague, so they would find it difficult to justify any disciplinary action.
I think the only thing that will happen is your relationship with your manager won't be great, but they can't discipline you for having an opinion and expressing it.

Lurkylou - actually that's when you are a customer. When you are staff they are paying for your time and within reason if they want to record what you are doing, that's up to them, you choose to work there. I know it sounds horrible but OP was unwise.

Having said, if OP keeps her nose clean and waits a week, no doubt someone else will do something wrong and the heat will be off her! Sounds like the manager has nothing better to do with her time if she has time to rewind and watch an entire morning's CCTV though.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but this evidence would not be inadmissable in a Tribunal.

Courts have different rules, which I am less familiar with. However, tribunals have the discretion to admit any evidence they think relevant, however obtained.

The US have very different rules, which basically exclude unlawfully obtained evidence from cases, which is often why people think the same rules apply here.

Even if we had the US rules, since you did know you were taped, they should not have a problem with admitting the evidence

BUT (and it's a big one)

if you've been there a year, they cannot dismiss you unless it's a good enough reason to be fair by law (well, they can, but you'd sue for compensation). Unless an offence is gross misconduct (which having a good old workplace bitch about a manager almost certainly isn't) you cannot usually be fired at a first offence.

SO even if they're dead cross, the worst that should happen is a warning. More likely, they'll simmer down and realise you were justified to moan! Just remember to complain away from the mic next time.

Interesting thoughts here.

TBH i am not worried about disiplinary action as the manager was in the wrong and by going further with this he would out himself. I also know that my views of his management skills are echoed by the big bosses. I was just cross at the recording situation.

I accept they can record me (begrudgingly!!!) but still confused as to how they can get away with recording the customers without their knowledge, surely thats a no no??

Am not due back in work til Monday, my other colleague will be getting the brunt of it today, he'll pick on her more as she's younger than me. Hey ho can't wait - me and my big mouth!

Oh and i've worked there for 5 long years, only part time for the past 18mths
x

For the prevention of crime they are allowed to record anything that goes on within the premises although they should have a sign up to say so.

They also are not allowed to keep the tapes longer than necessary to provide to police as evidence - which is generally thought to be twelve months, but actually in practice is until they run out of tapes.