Covert recordings by employees
In the London Borough of Lewisham, an employee sought to rely on 39 hours of covert recordings, via the help of a Dictaphone in order to support her discrimination claim. She alleged that the employer’s notes of disciplinary and other meetings were either inaccurate or falsified.
Although the application to admit the evidence was refused because neither the original recordings nor the transcripts had been made available, the EAT confirmed that such recordings were not inadmissible simply because the way in which they had been obtained was distasteful.
So what should you do as an employer in this situation?
Clearly if an employer discovers that covert recoding is occurring, the matter should be immediately addressed.
Conduct such as this by an employee could be held to have destroyed the relationship of trust and confidence in itself and if an employee lies about making recordings, this could be used in relation to the employee’s credibility.
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