Study finds most Czech companies monitor employee internet activity

Concerns about employee privacy in the Czech Republic are on the rise. A freshly released survey suggests that three quarters of all Czech companies track the web pages that their employees visit. And the minister for minorities and human rights recently proposed a crack-down on employers who don’t respect the privacy of their staff. How serious is the situation?

A survey published by Ernst & Young on Tuesday suggests that 75 percent of all Czech employers monitor which websites their employees visit. Lukáš Mikeska is the company’s senior IT manager.

Photo: Radio Prague

“It was one of the surprising findings, it was the first time we included this question in the survey. We are trying to find out how much employers are concerned with what their employees are doing on the internet and whether they are doing the tasks they’ve been assigned. It seems that employers in the Czech Republic don’t have that much trust in their employees performing fully at work.”

Kateřina Hlatká of the citizen’s group Iuridicum Remedium agrees that trust is the main issue in employee-employer relations.

“What needs to change is the culture and the relationship between employees and employers. More trust would mean that there would be a lesser need to monitor employee activities.”

While monitoring web sites visited by employees is not illegal, other forms of monitoring online activity, such as reading employee emails, are. Lukáš Mikeska again.

“Locally, intrusion into email systems is not in line with the privacy legislation of the Czech Republic. On the other hand, monitoring other internet activities is in line with the law.”

But even though technically employers are not allowed to read employee emails, the current labor code lacks proper sanctions in cases where they do, says Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs spokeswoman Štepánka Filipová.

“According to the Czech labor act, employers must respect employee privacy in the workplace, but there are no sanctions in the Czech legislation for such intrusions.”

A new proposal that Minister of Human Rights and Minorities Michael Kocáb presented to the government recently would change the situation. He is currently collaborating with the Ministry of Labor and Social affairs on an amendment that would make it possible for inspectors to not only visit workplaces but to actually impose fines on employers.

Michael Kocáb

Citizen’s rights activist Kateřina Hlatká thinks that a change in the law could noticeably improve the situation.

“We welcome Mr. Kocáb’s proposal and think more restrictions in this area are necessary so that employers will have less room to abuse the law. And we also welcome more inspections and controls, because they are another instrument in reducing monitoring of employees.”