The long-running case of Barbulescu v Romania has yet again generated headline news regarding an employee’s right to privacy in the workplace.
It was only eighteen months ago that some media reports were suggesting that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) had given employers an absolute right to monitor personal messages sent during working hours. We highlighted at the time that the decision fell a long way short of granting employers a ‘snooping charter’.
The latest headlines follow Mr Barbulescu’s successful appeal to the Grand Chamber of the ECHR which has now found that that the Romanian law had failed to adequately protect his right to a private life.
The background to the case was that Mr Barbulescu was employed in sales and was asked to set up a Yahoo Messenger account to answer clients’ enquiries. He had been warned not to use it for private matters. Three years after the account was set up he was told that his account had been monitored and he had been misusing it by sending personal messages to his girlfriend. He was presented with transcripts of his communications and dismissed.
He brought proceedings in the Romanian courts on the grounds that his right to privacy under the European Convention on Human Rights had been breached. His claims were dismissed by the national courts and the first tier of the ECHR.