Cameras on your labour floor: respect privacy rules

Do you want to install cameras on your work floor for safety reasons or to supervise your workers? This is possible given that you take certain precautions and respect the privacy rules.

This AI-generated translation may contain errors and should not be considerd legal advice. For accurate info, refer to the Dutch or French version or consult your Securex Legal Advisor.

Why install a camera in the workplace?

There are several valid reasons to install a camera in your workplace. The most common reasons are security (for example, monitoring who enters and leaves your company), protecting valuable materials on a construction site, or supervising your employees.

The privacy legislation does not forbid this, but it does set out a number of strict rules.

If you want to install cameras in your workplace following privacy rules, we recommend using our annex to the labour regulation about cameras in the workplace. You can order this via our website. Your Legal Advisor can always help you implement camera surveillance correctly.

What do the privacy rules and CAO 68 say?

When you install cameras in your workplace, whether or not you store the images, you must assess this against the following objectives, which you must clearly state in your labour regulation:

The four legitimate purposes are:

Safety and health
Protection of your company’s goods
Control of the production process (evaluating and improving your employees’ work organisation or ensuring the proper functioning of the machines)
Control of the work performed by your employees. Additional strict conditions apply here.

The measure must be proportionate to the objective and must not go beyond what is necessary. If there is a less intrusive way to achieve the objective, you must choose that. Therefore, you may only monitor employees with cameras temporarily when the purpose is to supervise the work organisation or the work performed. For other purposes, a permanent camera may be used.

Impact analysis and clear policy necessary

The Data Protection Authority (DPA) strictly monitors compliance with these rules and has repeatedly fined employers who broke the privacy rules.

Therefore, it is important to carry out a proper impact analysis before installing cameras in the workplace. This must show that you have carefully weighed the pros and cons and that the installation is the least intrusive and the most effective way to achieve your objective.

Here are some examples where the use of cameras violated privacy rules:

An employer who had cameras filming permanently to monitor employees.
An employer who did not specify the purpose of the camera policy.
Permanent installation of a camera when the stated purpose was only to monitor one employee.
Installation of cameras in unauthorised locations that excessively intrude on employees’ private lives.

If you do not follow the privacy rules, you risk that the collected evidence will be declared invalid. This can have consequences, for example, in cases of dismissal for urgent cause.

Which procedure must you follow?

The introduction of camera surveillance in the workplace is done through the labour regulation.

If your company has a Company Council, you must inform it in advance about all aspects of the camera surveillance. If there is no Company Council, you provide this information to the Committee for Prevention and Protection at Work (CPPW).

If there is no CPPW either, you communicate the information to the trade union representative, and if there is no trade union delegation, the employees themselves must receive the information.

The information must be fully transparent and must cover the presence of the cameras, the specific purpose, and the procedures applied.

The information must at least answer the following questions from your employees:

How many cameras have been installed?
Where are they installed and what is their viewpoint?
How long will the cameras be installed and when do they operate?
Are the images stored or not?
How long are the images retained?

If the information shows that camera surveillance affects the privacy of one or more employees, the Company Council (or the CPPW or the trade union delegation) will decide which measures must be taken to minimise the interference with employees’ privacy.

Your employee always has a right of access to the images concerning them. The privacy legislation also requires you to keep a processing register.

How can Securex help you?

For privacy-compliant camera surveillance, use our annex to the labour regulation.

Need more information about privacy rules and camera surveillance in the workplace? Read our thematic dossier on Lex4You or contact your Legal Advisor via MyHr@securex.be.