National Labour Inspectorate: early guidelines on the installation of GPS on company cars

The newly created National Labour Inspectorate has assumed a position on the interpretation to give to the new clause 4 of the Workers’ Statute as regards the installation of GPS equipment on company cars. With circular no. 2 dated 7 November 2016, the Inspectorate accordingly amended the opinion given on this point by the Milan Inter-regional Labour Administration in May 2016. According to the inter-regional administration “the GPS system (…) should not be considered separately from the car on which it is installed and the prior consent of the trade union or ministry authorisation is not required for its installation”. Following this indication, a number of Labour Administrations published on their websites that “following the entry into force of Legislative Decree 151/2015, the installation of GPS systems on board vehicles for business use is no longer subject to any authorisation by this office”. A different view is taken however by the Inspectorate according to whom, generally speaking, geolocation systems are “<<additional>> devices with respect to working tools, and are not used primarily and essentially to execute work, but to respond to additional insurance, organizational and productive needs or to ensure job safety” and “only in very special cases – if tracking systems are installed to actually perform the job (…), or installation is required by legislative or regulatory laws (… ) – can it be assumed that they end up by <<becoming>> actual working tools.“ This means that only in the latter case may the procedure to protect civil liberties set forth by section 4, paragraph 1, of the Workers’ Statute be excluded.