A major study of financial services staff has revealed negative attitudes towards technological surveillance by companies with workers viewing it as demoralising, stressful and indicating a lack of trust by employers.
The research was commissioned by the Financial Services Union (FSU) in partnership with the University of Limerick (UL).
Workers were surveyed in 2019 and again in 2021, with a follow up survey carried out in 2023.
In 2021, a fifth of respondents indicated that their computer use at home was monitored, 38% had their office computer monitored and almost one third noted their telephone use was monitored.
Over half indicated they did not know if their office or home computer was monitored.
Almost one quarter of respondents reported that their employer had increased data collection on their work since they started working from home.
Two thirds of respondents felt surveillance was demoralising and indicated that it had increased their levels of stress, while over half felt that surveillance at work was a violation of privacy.
The 2023 survey results mirrored the findings of the previous research with 91% of respondents indicating concern about surveillance and data collection by their employers.
Almost 96% said they felt that employers should have to consult with trade unions prior to introducing monitoring and surveillance at work
"Employers need to be transparent with how they collect data and what surveillance they are employing
to track their employees," said John O'Connell, General Secretary of the FSU.
"For the government, it should undertake research on possible legislative changes that may be required to keep pace with technology advances whilst ensuring proper regulation of employers’ collection and use of data from surveillance functions," Mr O'Connell said.
