The operational instructions of the INL on audiovisual aids and other control instruments

The National Labour Inspectorate (“INL”), with its circular No. 5/2018, has given operational instructions on the problems concerning the installation and use of audiovisual aids and other control instruments. According to the INL, should any employees be filmed, the latter should take place as a rule accidentally and occasionally, but nothing prevents the direct shot of the employee, provided that there are reasons grounding the control, without introducing any conditions such as the ‘shot angle’ of the video camera or ‘the obscuring of the employee’s face’. Furthermore, according to the INL, it is not fundamental to specify the predetermined locating and the exact number of video cameras to be installed, without prejudice to the fact that the shots must be consistent and strictly connected with the reasons entitling the control and declared in the relevant request. The circular also dwells upon the justifying reason under article 4 of the Workers’ Statute as to the “protection of the company’s assets”, by stressing that the principles of lawfulness and exactness of the pursued aim, as well as of the respective proportionality, fairness and non-incidence, call for gradualness – as stated by the Italian Data Protection Authority – as to the extent and type of monitoring, which makes more invasive controls residual.  Always according to the INL, any remote access to the images ‘in real time’ must only be authorised in exceptional cases duly grounded. Last, but by no means least, the INL dwells upon the biometric recognition installed on the machines in order to prevent unauthorised parties from using it. This is considered a fundamental tool to “… do the job …” and, therefore, its installation may take place regardless, pursuant to paragraph 2 of article 4 of the Workers’ Statute, of both the agreement with the trade unions and of the authorisation administrative procedure foreseen by law.