Abstract
ICT professionals should be concerned about the use made of their artefacts. ICT enable workplace surveillance on an unprecedented scale and increasingly at a level that no employee activity can escape it. We cannot expect employees and employers to formulate an agreed set of rules regarding privacy and surveillance rights that are considered fair or just to both. The reality is that there exists an asymmetrical distribution of power that favours the employers and so they would prevail. This paper suggests an approach to resolving the conflicting interests associated with workplace privacy and surveillance. It suggests the discourse be in terms of justice and applies Rawls theory of distributive justice. It then evaluates the Workplace Surveillance Act 2005 of New South Wales. It is one of the few examples of specific workplace surveillance legislation in the world. It finds that when evaluated against Rawls fair rules it is seriously deficient and represents a missed opportunity to resolve the conflicting interests.
Recommended Citation
Sandy, Geoffrey A., "Workplace Privacy and Surveillance: A Matter of Distributive Justice" (2006). ACIS 2006 Proceedings. 69.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/acis2006/69