Don't spy on your employees, unless you warn them in advance.
That was the message last week from Labor Minister Martine Aubry, who came down firmly on the side of aggrieved workers at a waste-treatment plant who are suing their bosses for installing hidden cameras in their locker rooms.The company, Afiment, said it set up the surveillance system "to unmask the perpetrators of thefts and industrial espionage." But 80 of its employees announced, after discovering the cameras, that they are taking management to court for invasion of privacy.
Union leaders contend the crimes in question were merely the occasional disappearance of soap and shampoo from washrooms at the plant north of Paris. They said workers' representatives should have been notified before such security measures were taken.
Aubry, in a communique, said the company's action "can only be firmly condemned." She said her ministry is drafting legislation that would prohibit employers from installing surveillance systems unless they had a pressing need for them and notified workers' representatives in advance.
The bill also would prohibit investigations into the private life of job applicants.
The Workers Force, a nationwide labor federation, has complained that many employers probe into aspects of an applicant's life that have no bearing to the job in question. The federation also denounced the use of unreliable testing techniques - such as handwriting analyses - and improper use of computer data.
France's main employers association has expressed concern that the bill will make recruiting more costly and cumbersome.