The story takes place in the Netherlands, but it could take place anywhere in the world, at a time of widespread telework, which makes it possible to work for any employer anywhere in the world.
>> Alert on the hidden dangers of telework
A Dutch telemarketer, employed by Chetu, an American company based in Florida, is instructed to leave his webcam on for nine hours a day, for three days, during training. After two days, the employee let it be known that this request made him uncomfortable: “I feel like I’m being watched nine hours a day by a camera. It’s an invasion of my privacy”. He explains that his camera will not be activated, which is not a big deal since he shares his screen and his employer can already monitor everything he does on his laptop.
Except that American society will not hear it that way: she will choose to fire him for “refusal to work” and insubordination. But the matter will not stop there. The Dutch employee will sue the American company in court, qthey will prove him right and heavily condemn the employer: 75,000 euros including 50,000 euros in damages. The judges will refer to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that “video surveillance of an employee in the workplace must be considered a significant intrusion into the employee’s privacy.”
The case law of the European Court of Human Rights also applies to us, and Dutch labor law is close to French law, but there are many safeguards that protect employees.
For Olivier Angotti, a lawyer specializing in labor law, the guiding principle is that of proportionality. Is the requirement to leave a webcam plugged in proportional to the desired goal, which in this case is participation in training? The answer is clearly no.
Installing video surveillance in a workshop for security reasons is still acceptable, but in an office or, worse, at the home of a teleworker, no way. Everyone has the right to privacy at work. You can therefore leave your webcam switched off. The National Commission for Computing and Liberties, the Labor Code and case law agree with you.