Can workplace monitoring cover a smoking room for employees and guests?

ANSWER

Visual monitoring in workplaces is currently regulated by Articles 22² and 22³ of the Labour Code. Under Article 22² § 2: "Monitoring shall not cover sanitary facilities, changing rooms, canteens or smoking rooms, or premises made available to the company trade union organisation, unless use of monitoring in those premises is necessary to achieve the purpose specified in § 1 and will not infringe the employee's dignity and other personal interests, or the principle of freedom and independence of trade unions, in particular through the use of techniques enabling identification of persons present in those premises." In view of the wording of that provision, CCTV cameras should not be placed in a smoking room, as the employer, as data controller, cannot foresee whether placing such a camera would infringe the dignity or personal interests of an employee or guest, since it is impossible to foresee various events in the future.

Additional obligations of the employer as data controller in connection with processing personal data within visual monitoring are regulated in the remaining paragraphs of Article 22² of the Labour Code. They include, among other things: introducing appropriate provisions in the work regulations, collective agreement or notice, marking monitored premises and areas, and informing employees of the introduction of monitoring.