Employee Monitoring and Surveillance under Australian Law: The Need for Workplace Privacy Legislation

This paper describes how New Zealand's Privacy Act applies in practice to the workplace, and what its effect has been in relation to the protection of workers’ privacy interests. While there are a few areas where the legislation is effective, it has been largely a disappointment for workers, who are increasingly subject to privacy-intrusive practices in the workplace. Individuals’ interests have always tended to be overridden in institutional and contractual settings where individuals lack bargaining power. The main argument of this paper is that New Zealand's Privacy Act, now in force for over eleven years, has hardly affected the balance of power in relation to workplace privacy matters. The irony is that those who are best placed to take advantage of the legislation in the employment setting are unsuccessful job applicants and dismissed employees; i.e. those who are not actually in a subsisting employment relationship. Despite the existence of privacy legislation, it is employment law that remains of paramount importance for the protection of workers’ privacy interests. The New Zealand experience suggests that effective workplace privacy protection can only be attained through specific sectorial regulation that overrides managerial prerogative and the ability of workers to contract out or their rights.

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Employee Monitoring and Surveillance

Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society ◽

10.4135/9781412956260.n272 ◽

2012 ◽

Author(s):

Zoya A. Voronovich ◽

Kai R. Larsen

Keyword(s):

Monitoring And Surveillance ◽

Employee Monitoring

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Legal update: New privacy legislation for the private sector.

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e362252004-002 ◽

2004 ◽

Author(s):

Blair E. Maxton

Keyword(s):

Private Sector ◽

Privacy Legislation

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Serological screening for Brucella spp. and Leptospira spp. antibodies in southern elephant seals Mirounga leonina from Elephant Island, Antarctica, in 2003 and 2004

Diseases of Aquatic Organisms ◽

10.3354/dao03548 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 142 ◽

pp. 161-170

Author(s):

AM Sánchez-Sarmiento ◽

V Ruoppolo ◽

MMC Muelbert ◽

JS Ferreira Neto ◽

JL Catão-Dias

Keyword(s):

Austral Summer ◽

Agglutination Test ◽

South Shetland Islands ◽

Climate Change Scenarios ◽

Mirounga Leonina ◽

Serological Screening ◽

Elephant Seals ◽

Southern Elephant Seals ◽

Monitoring And Surveillance ◽

Elephant Island

Brucella spp. and Leptospira spp. antibodies were surveyed in 35 southern elephant seals (SESs) Mirounga leonina at Elephant Island (South Shetland Islands), western Antarctic peninsula, in the Austral summer of 2003 and 2004. The rose Bengal test and a commercial competitive ELISA (c-ELISA) were used to detect Brucella spp. exposure, and the microscopic agglutination test (MAT) with 22 live serovars was used to determine anti-Leptospira spp. antibodies. We found evidence of Brucella spp. exposure in 3 of 35 (8.6%) SESs tested via the c-ELISA displaying high percentage inhibition (PI), similar to other studies in pinnipeds in which Brucella spp. antibodies have been determined. Two of the 3 positives were pups (PI = 70.4 and 86.6%), while the third was an adult female (PI = 48.8%). The 3 c-ELISA positive SESs were additionally tested via the serum agglutination test but were found to be negative. All individuals were negative for antibodies against 22 Leptospira spp. serovars by MAT. These results contribute to the knowledge and monitoring of zoonotic pathogens with epizootic potential in Southern Ocean pinnipeds. Given the potential impact that pathogens may have on the abundance of wild (sometimes threatened and endangered) populations, constant monitoring and surveillance are required to prevent pathogen spread, particularly under forecast climate change scenarios.

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