Companies can monitor the screens of those who work remotely

Certainly, companies have free rein to monitor the screens of those who telework and control the work that is done remotely, since Spanish jurisprudence endorses the use of software to carry out this control, as long as the worker is duly informed.

3/28/2022

It seems that a teleoperator in Valladolid was fired from her company for disciplinary reasons, after her boss monitored her screen, and realized that she was consulting and participating in internet forums during her working hours.

Following these events, the company argued her dismissal with very generic justifications, saying that she transgressed contractual good faith, and that therefore her productivity decreased continuously and voluntarily, since this way she could avoid problems.

However, the affected worker went to court to try to obtain the nullity of her dismissal, claiming that they had violated her right to privacy with the monitoring of her screen, but after the assessments, both the Social Court and the Superior Court of Justice of Valladolid have considered that the use of the software to control the teleoperator's activity was appropriate.

Since, as stipulated by the Law, the company, before installing this monitoring software on the worker's device, informed her of all the details of its operation, and obtained her express consent to use it, therefore the court considers that it was used without infringing her right to privacy.

Monitoritzar les pantalles

In some cases, this type of problem could be avoided by using tools such as Timenet, which allow specific tasks to be assigned to workers, and thus be able to systematize and monitor in real time the evolution of the projects being worked on.

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