Guidelines no. 5/2018 of NLI provides operational instruction regarding the issues relating to the set up and use of audiovisual equipment and other control instruments, which may also enable the possibility of remotely controlling workers’ activities.

Investigation of applications

As it is known, Article 4 of Law no. 300/1970 – as amended by Article 23 of Legislative Decree no. 151/2015 – allows to make use of audiovisual equipment and other employees control tools exclusively for organizational and productive purpose, for security reasons and to protect the company assets.

These instruments may be allowed by collective agreement, concluded with the trade union representatives, or upon specific authorization issued by the competent territorial office of National Labour Inspectorate. In this case, the investigation of the applications must be based on the assessment of the conditions that legitimize the remote control of workers. The authorization provision is, indeed, issued only for the reasons specifically stated by the applicant at the time of the request.  

Therefore, any possible inspections following the authorization provision must verify that the employer use of the control tools is in compliance, and consistent, with the purposes stated in the application.

Protection of company asset

Article 4 of Law no. 300/1970, among the reasons justifying remote control of employees, mentions the protection of company assets.

This concept requires – during the preliminary activity – a careful examination of the applications so that the existence of the conditions for the protection of company assets through audiovisual equipment, or other control tools, may be evaluated in relation to the possibility for the employer to prevent unlawful conducts by making use of alternative measures that are less restrictive of workers’ rights. 

Cameras

Control of workers’ activities can also be achieved through the use of sophisticated video surveillance systems allowing – through the use of IP, wired or wireless network – the access, also remotely, to video and audio information “in real time” and the transfer of recorded data – through the internet – from one device to another or to file digital content with cloud computing.

In this regard, the guidelines point out that, the use of these tools enabling remote access to images “in real time” can only be authorized in exceptional cases duly motivated and closely related to the purposes stated in the application. In any case, a copy of the “log files” of the access to recorded images must be kept for a reasonable period of time (six months or more).

Biometric data

The control of workers through the use of a biometric system – according to the provisions laid down by the Data Protection Authority – may be allowed only in relation to security reasons or to the protection of company assets. Nevertheless, the biometric recognition, installed on company tools and machinery aiming to permit or limit their use only to enough qualified workers, can be considered as an essential tool in order to perform the work activity. In this case, in fact, the provisions contained in Article 4, paragraph 2, Law no. 300/1970, are not applicable.