Remote Working And GDPR

Pandemic has introduced or accelerated new approaches in employment, remote working being one of them. This new field presents several issues, one of them being linked with Employers concern to monitor Employee while teleworking.

Installing a software in the computer used by the employee aiming to check his activity, seems to be rather strict for the purposes of Data Protection. There seems to be little room for establishing a legal ground based on contract implementation or lawful interest of the Employer; less severe alternatives can apply, indicatively blocking of certain websites, measuring workload produced etc. Consent is a recourse proposed by software providers of monitoring systems, however it presents little security, as it can be withdrawn any time; further, in an employment relationship, the employee is considered to be the weak party and granting of consent can be challenged as having taken place through subtle exercise of pressure.