Company Policy Documents Translation Service
Protection of company’s data is becoming an important issue for global companies dealing with multilingual workforce. This process requires professional document translations from English into foreign languages. The worldwide web, email, social media, etc. all make it challenging for a company to ensure proper data protection. Furthermore, employees who are able to use the Internet sometimes dare to surf for their own private purposes during company time.
Here and there, you hear that this phenomenon is taking on problematic dimensions and, as a result, you are hearing calls for restrictions and controls. For this reason, it is no longer the exception that some office workers have their Facebook pages open all day long while at work.
The law hasn’t made things easy. It’s about finding a balance between the interests of the employer and the privacy of the employee. On the one hand, the employee has to carry out their duties in accordance with company policy, on the other, the employer is entitled to verify that this is indeed the case. However, there are decisions from various international courts that say that an employee’s privacy also has to be respected in the workplace. A phone call home to say that you’ll be late is permissible, just as is making urgent payments if you can’t get to the bank during banking hours.
Most laws or decisions allow employers to implement certain restrictions on their employees’ Internet use. Employer and employee organizations have accepted that, but certain conditions also have to be stipulated in the employment contract.
In the workplace, the employer may monitor the workforce’s e-mail traffic and Internet use in order to accomplish these four objectives.
- To trace any improper Internet or e-mail use.
- To protect the interests of the company and, thus, to detect whether any sensitive information is being leaked to the competition.
- To oversee the security and proper functioning of the IT network, e.g. to guard against viruses.
- To check whether the Company policy on the use of information technology is being properly adhered to.
However, it is only in the first three cases that the employer can directly look to see who is in breach. In the fourth case, the employer must first notify the staff with a general warning. Only if they find that there’s been an abuse can they identify the employee – and even then the party concerned must be confronted in private.
It is important to note that, in general, that only the Internet use but not the content can be monitored.
Therefore, it is worthwhile to introduce a well thought-out, well-prepared Internet policy spelled out in professionally translated multilingual employment contracts.
Whether posting disrespectful and outrageous comments on Facebook about the employer is reason for an immediate dismissal will depend, based on recent case law, on the nature of the comments posted and whether the message was intended to be private and only accessible to a limited number of colleagues, or intended for every one visiting the site.
In conclusion, to be forearmed is to be forewarned…… And here are some guidelines:
- Decide which means of communication your business will make available, what sites you block, and which you allow only temporary access to.
- Provide sufficient information on the monitoring employees’ computer use.
- Have the Company policy on the use of information technology signed by the employees and incorporated in their employment agreements.
- Make provision for necessary updates for when there are changes to the law and to react to new applications and technologies.
Contact our legal translation service to obtain professional Turkish translation, Swedish document translation, Japanese translation, Korean translation, Hebrew translation, Portuguese translation, and other multilingual corporate document translations.
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