Big Brother at work – workplace surveillance and employee privacy in Australia

Increased surveillance of employees accompanying the move to
work-from-home during the pandemic and other socio-technological
developments have amplified long-standing concerns that employee
tracking, electronic performance measurement and other forms of workplace
surveillance are becoming both more common and more intrusive. This
article analyses developments in this area since the Victorian Law Reform
Commission’s ground-breaking 2005 report on workplace privacy. It
examines the current state of Australian law, before considering the case for
reform. This article calls for comprehensive national workplace surveillance
legislation, based on empirical research into post-pandemic surveillance
practices and expectations of privacy on the part of employees, to create
stronger and more coherent legal protections for employee privacy in
Australia.