The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that employers can monitor their employee’s (private) communication only if the employees are notified in advance. Bogdan Mihai Barbulescu, a Romanian man, had created a Yahoo Messenger account to communicate with clients. The employer of Barbulescu fired him because of the fact that Barbulescu was talking with his brother and fiancée about personal matters on Yahoo Messenger.
Initially the European Court decided that article 8 of the ECHR (right to respect for private and family life, the home and correspondence) was not violated since “it is not unreasonable for an employer to want to verify that the employees are completing their professional tasks during working hours.”
The Grand Chamber however decided that article 8 is violated in this case. Taking the employee’s right to respect for his private life into account, the employer should have noticed Barbulescu that he was monitoring his private communication.