The simplification decree allows remote control without the need for an ad hoc trade union agreement. The employer will also be able to access data and conversations on the employee's personal devices, if he uses them for work. The worker caught using them for non-work purposes will risk disciplinary sanctions. Green light also for movement monitoring. The labor lawyer: "Risk of appeals for unconstitutionality"

Of Stefano DeAgostini | June 17, 2015 | Daily fact

Computer, Tablet, smartphones And badges. With the Jobs act, all these work tools can be control yourself from the company without a precedent union agreement. And based on the data collected, the company will be able to take disciplinary measurestowards employees. This is one of the most delicate innovations provided for by the decree simplifications of the labor reform, approved in advance by the Council of Ministers on 11 June. Even in recent days the Minister of Labour Giuliano Poletti he tried to minimize, the rule is bound to be discussed, given that we are on the verge of the invasion of privacy. Not only that: insiders have no doubts about the fact that it presents profiles of unconstitutionality. “The rule concerns both the devices supplied by the employer and those owned by the worker that the company asks him to bring to the company, in the limits where they are used to work,” he points out Maria Teresa Salimbeni, labor lawyer and professor of labor law at the Suor Orsola Benincasa University in Naples. And if the worker will be caught using these tools for non-working purposesmay be subject to sanctions.

The decree, which is now being examined by Parliament and to which the government will then have to give the definitive go-ahead, modifies article 4 of the Statute of workers, that on remote controls In a working environment. There are no big news regarding the installation of “audiovisual systems“, i.e. the cameras, for which the trade union agreement or theauthorizationby the Ministry of Labour. Different speech for "the tools that the worker needs to perform his work", i.e. PCs, tablets and smartphones, and the "instruments of registration of accesses and presences”, i.e. the badges. In this case the employer will be able to control the devices without making agreements with the trade union organizations.

But what happens to privacy in all this? “The company could become aware of the worker's sensitive data – explains the lawyer – but will not be able to use the content of personal communication for disciplinary purposes". The employer will then be able, for example, to access conversations via mail. Little consolation is the fact that he cannot then appeal to what he reads to sanction the employee. In defense of the worker, in fact, there is the Privacy Code, which the employer is required to follow, according to the express indication of the decree. Another guarantee in favor of the employee is the information that the company will have to provide to the staff to inform them of the controls, as also mentioned by Poletti in recent days. “It will take one policy company, a preventive regulation – explains the labor lawyer – where the company will have to indicate what the worker can and cannot do and if and how it will be controlled by the company”.

But despite these protections, according to the labor lawyer, one point of the decree still puts the worker's privacy at risk: this is the part concerning company badges. The premise is that a distinction must be made between the tools that record entry and exit from work and those that report movements within the company. “Liberalizing control over the cards with which you enter and exit is legitimate, because it allows you to keep track of working hours - explains Salimbeni - But there are also systems through which you can monitor the movements of the worker within the company perimeter. This more invasive control would violate the right to privacy and freedom of the worker who descends from constitutional principles“. In particular, article 2 of the Charter, which protects the inviolable rights of man. In this case, the teacher assumes a excess of delegation, that is, an overrun with respect to the criteria set by the law approved in December: appeals could therefore be launched to detect the unconstitutionality of the provision.

To these critical points is added another one, which concerns the assumptions with the new contract with increasing protections in force since 7 March. “If the employer – explains Salimbeni – fires an employee who entered alone two minutes on Facebook, the dismissal will be illegitimate, but the employer can still keep the worker out of the company and pay him only oneallowance, without reintegrating him into work”. The relative decree of the Jobs act, in fact, provides that the labor judge, in the event of disciplinary dismissals, cannot assess the severity of the crime committed, but must limit itself to verifying it subsistence. And combined with the new measure, it can give this effect: every infraction at a disciplinary level, even if the bargaining agreements identify it as minor, can give rise to a dismissal without the possibility of reinstatement.

Jobs Act: the investigative computer scientist, remote control software has always existed

Article published on: 18/06/2015 adnkronos

“There have always been software for making remote controls; technology is certainly more and more advanced and it all depends on how you use it”. Speaking is Giuseppe Lodeserto, president of the College of the National Professional IT Register, with years of investigative experience in the Police behind him, commenting with Labitalia on the legislative decrees of the Jobs Act relating to remote controls.

“Technology has made great strides - he explains - now everything can be seen from a distance, both on mobile phones and on PCs. Not to mention if you connect to Facebook. Between GPS and messages, control is assured. Let's just think of the mailbox - he points out - that the employer allows the employee in the office to converse professionally. The mail in question can be easily monitored, also for the security needs of the company itself to perhaps avoid a leak of news”.

“What I mean -Lodeserto reiterates- is that, apart from the Jobs Act, checks are nothing new and that they can be done very easily on every single tool that the worker uses: from landlines, to PCs and mobile phones. Network controls certainly cannot be obscured. Of course there is also a discourse relating to privacy and legality, but this is a whole other story”.

Related news: Jobs Act, the last shame: it is permissible to spy on workers

Jobs Act (UGL), Capone: "Destruction art.18 was not enough for the government"

Jobs act: Camusso (CGIL) attacks "We are like Big Brother"

"Remote control, today nothing changes for workers"

Jobs Act, an old idea of work

Interceptions, the centrists and the gag: "Immediately decree".

At each inquiry – it had been so for the Lupi case and the investigation into the Great Works and it is these days for the Ischia case and the conversations of Massimo D'Alema – the topic of wiretapping returns to the political sights and almost everyone agrees. To restore the gag.

Ed.: we want to make it increasingly difficult for the judiciary to remotely control the offenders' iPads or Smartphones, but for the workers ...