European court rules against employer who read worker's messages

The European Court of Human Rights has reversed the decision of a Romanian court to side with an employer which used surveillance software to monitor an employee’s private messages.

The worker was sacked from his job after bosses at his company read messages sent through the chat system in 2007.

Bogdan Barbulescu claimed his right to a private life was not upheld by the courts in Romania, and his appeal was granted successful by the ECHR in a landmark case.

According to a statement from the court following the decision, "an employer’s instructions could not reduce private social life in the workplace to zero."

"Respect for private life and for the privacy of correspondence continues to exist, even if these may be restricted in so far as necessary," it added.

Barbulescu was fired in August 2007 for breach of the private company’s internal regulations regarding the use of chat services.

However, the ECHR did say that it was acceptable for employers to monitor their staff members’ online activity, and even in some cases fire them for using private messages.

"The Court considers that States should ensure that, when an employer takes measures to monitor employees' communications, these measures are accompanied by adequate and sufficient safeguards against abuse," the ECHR said.