Direction Comes After A Chennai-Based Firm Installed CCTV Cameras In Its Rest Rooms To ‘Monitor’ Employees Including Women
Chennai : A Chennai-based private company has literally raised a stink by installing CCTV cameras in its rest rooms to ‘monitor’ employees including women! Strongly disapproving of the action, the Madras High Court has directed the company to remove them forthwith.
The employees of Raptakos Bratt and Company Limited, in a petition in the High Court complained that the company’s management has installed 38 CCTV cameras on their premises including inside the toilets since October 2013. Despite objections from the 78 employees of whom 10 are women, the company refused to remove the surveillance cameras affecting their privacy. The employees had also approached the Deputy Commissioner of Labour who also directed the company to uninstall the cameras but to no avail.
Hence they prayed the High Court to intervene.
The company’s lawyer justified the action saying the employer had every right to install such cameras to monitor the staff. The CCTVs helped the managing director to keep a tab on the activities of the staff even while he was abroad.
Disagreeing with the contention Justice Karnan said rest rooms are the private areas of the employees, where they relax and relieve themselves. No factory fixtures or raw materials or finished goods or operations of any kind are carried out from the toilets. Hence, the employer’s viewing through CCTV cameras is not warranted. Therefore the judge directed the company to uninstall the cameras from the rest rooms.
