Workplace CCTV systems can provide essential monitoring and surveillance, especially in the case of hazardous area CCTV camera stations, which can remotely monitor staff and equipment located in potentially dangerous zones.
In research published in August 2018, the TUC found that health and safety benefits are among the most obvious reasons to introduce workplace surveillance in any form, while monitoring people who work alone as part of their job can have benefits in protecting their safety and security.
The TUC recommends that surveillance should not be covert, as workers want to know when they are being watched, and that there should be a clear reason why surveillance is being carried out.
More than four fifths (81%) of employees want their employers to justify why new monitoring is introduced – making methods with a clear purpose, such as hazardous area CCTV camera stations, likely to rank higher in terms of employee approval.
This is reflected in the fact that CCTV ranked fourth out of 12 methods of surveillance covered in the TUC survey in terms of how acceptable it is perceived to be among employees.
As many as two thirds of workers are willing to be monitored by CCTV cameras in the workplace, an indication of how the technology has become commonplace and widely accepted, due in part to workers recognising the net benefits to safety, security and other performance indicators when clear and transparent surveillance is carried out.
