Recording driving and conversation
Discussion
I had an accident in a work vehicle on Saturday after heavy snow. Someone decided to hit the trailer I was towing causing a slow speed accident, no damage to my vehicle or the trailer and only slight damage to other party.
The company vehicle has a camera pointing at that driver that I was fully aware of. But I have now been sent a voice recording from transport department from all my time driving on Saturday. I was completely unaware of the voice recorder and I’m not happy about it all. My manger was sent the email of the recording and pressed play in front of an office full of staff and only turned it off after I insisted.
What are the legalities of being recorded without being informed you are?
The company vehicle has a camera pointing at that driver that I was fully aware of. But I have now been sent a voice recording from transport department from all my time driving on Saturday. I was completely unaware of the voice recorder and I’m not happy about it all. My manger was sent the email of the recording and pressed play in front of an office full of staff and only turned it off after I insisted.
What are the legalities of being recorded without being informed you are?
Edited by PPEhero on Monday 11th January 18:22
PPEhero said:
I had an accident in a work vehicle on Saturday after heavy snow. Someone decided to hit the trailer I was towing causing a slow speed accident, no damage to my vehicle or the trailer and only slight damage to other party.
The company vehicle has a camera pointing at that driver that I was fully aware of. But I have now been sent a voice recording from transport department from all my time driving on Saturday. I was completely unaware of the voice recorder and I’m not happy about it all. My manger was sent the email of the recording and pressed play in front of an office full of staff and only turned it off after I insisted.
What are the legalities of been recorded without being informed you are?
Where you parked up shagging in it during work hours?The company vehicle has a camera pointing at that driver that I was fully aware of. But I have now been sent a voice recording from transport department from all my time driving on Saturday. I was completely unaware of the voice recorder and I’m not happy about it all. My manger was sent the email of the recording and pressed play in front of an office full of staff and only turned it off after I insisted.
What are the legalities of been recorded without being informed you are?
If you were.genuinely unaware of the voice recording equipment And its not buried in your terms of employment somewhere as a condition of driving the vehicle or whatever else you may have a case for complaint including legal action if you wanted to.
If nothing else it could be argued they are breaching Article 8 of the Human Rights Act, right to a private life which does extend to work spaces.
I think they would be hard pressed to be constantly audio recording in the cab if they are doing it covertly.
Your boss is straight unprofessional playing it in front of others also.
If nothing else it could be argued they are breaching Article 8 of the Human Rights Act, right to a private life which does extend to work spaces.
I think they would be hard pressed to be constantly audio recording in the cab if they are doing it covertly.
Your boss is straight unprofessional playing it in front of others also.
A tractor hit my car last year and the insurance co wanted the dash cam footage as evidence. It was quite dark at the time, so the only way you could really notice the impact was a loud bang as the tractor took the door mirror off. I did mention to the insurance co that there was some fruity language on there when I sent the clip to them, but obviously the message wasn't passed on. Cue a young lady in a crowded office watching my video and having to play it again as the sound was quite quiet. She turned it up to 11 to hear the bang of the mirror getting smashed off and then me shouting "f
king ahole !" 
king ahole !" Alucidnation said:
PPEhero said:
I had an accident in a work vehicle on Saturday after heavy snow. Someone decided to hit the trailer I was towing causing a slow speed accident, no damage to my vehicle or the trailer and only slight damage to other party.
The company vehicle has a camera pointing at that driver that I was fully aware of. But I have now been sent a voice recording from transport department from all my time driving on Saturday. I was completely unaware of the voice recorder and I’m not happy about it all. My manger was sent the email of the recording and pressed play in front of an office full of staff and only turned it off after I insisted.
What are the legalities of been recorded without being informed you are?
Where you parked up shagging in it during work hours?The company vehicle has a camera pointing at that driver that I was fully aware of. But I have now been sent a voice recording from transport department from all my time driving on Saturday. I was completely unaware of the voice recorder and I’m not happy about it all. My manger was sent the email of the recording and pressed play in front of an office full of staff and only turned it off after I insisted.
What are the legalities of been recorded without being informed you are?
Wonder what was being recorded by OP that resulted in it having to be forwarded to management 
Way back in the '00's, when i worked in the admin for a company that did display refits in B&Q, a couple of the staff got caught out by the trackers that were fitted in the work vans. They were repeatedly made aware of them but some forgot and still carried on as normal. Lots of fun to be had in the office with the entirely expected use of company liveried vans outside of work hours, one making a weekly trip to a hot spot for prostitution, another visiting a dodgy area of town to buy drugs whilst the best was a guy who lent the van to his son who actually went out using the van to deal drugs during the night
Playing that to a roomful of people is awful, and not telling you that your every utterance is recorded doesnt give you the option to censor what you say.
Manager is a dick and wants getting rid of, all those folk in the meeting will glad that it wasnt them and very wary.
Should be told its recording and if anything dodgy is found, it should be between you, the manager, HR and anyone you want to take in to a meeting about it.
Companies can be very good at making things that aren't actually legal sound official and above board. Seen it a few times and thankfully folk have been saved by either the union or some good advice. Even Greater Manchester Police weren't averse to it, funny seeing management getting torn a new one for illegal stuff by a savvy union rep who was taking advice from the unions lawyer. I am not exactly a union man but they have their uses in certain circumstances.
Manager is a dick and wants getting rid of, all those folk in the meeting will glad that it wasnt them and very wary.
Should be told its recording and if anything dodgy is found, it should be between you, the manager, HR and anyone you want to take in to a meeting about it.
Companies can be very good at making things that aren't actually legal sound official and above board. Seen it a few times and thankfully folk have been saved by either the union or some good advice. Even Greater Manchester Police weren't averse to it, funny seeing management getting torn a new one for illegal stuff by a savvy union rep who was taking advice from the unions lawyer. I am not exactly a union man but they have their uses in certain circumstances.
I want to know what was recorded that was so bad?
Are you an angel in the office and complete potty mouth in the van? Like some of these road rage DCW videos where you see someone go off on one in a tourettes style tirade of abusive language because someone took 0.01 seconds to pull away from a green light?
Are you an angel in the office and complete potty mouth in the van? Like some of these road rage DCW videos where you see someone go off on one in a tourettes style tirade of abusive language because someone took 0.01 seconds to pull away from a green light?
As said above, you need to check your terms of employment for a line that says they reserve the right to monitor that. Most will say something like “you’re communications may be monitored” or something equally as vague, but it would be very rare (IME) for a company to state they want to be allowed to record your voice all day. The only time I can think they would monitor you is if you were under investigation for something but, again, it would need to be in your terms that they reserve the right to monitor that.
As for playing it in front of the office - total dick move on his behalf. However... whilst on work time, you should be acting in a way that doesn’t bring you or your employer in to disrepute so if you’ve been recorded doing dodgy, you’re probably set for more of a bking than they are. However, a “fk me, you ” when someone crashes in to you is hardly unsurprising and unlikely to bring your HR out in a case of the ‘sackies’.
As for playing it in front of the office - total dick move on his behalf. However... whilst on work time, you should be acting in a way that doesn’t bring you or your employer in to disrepute so if you’ve been recorded doing dodgy, you’re probably set for more of a b
king than they are. However, a “fk me, you ” when someone crashes in to you is hardly unsurprising and unlikely to bring your HR out in a case of the ‘sackies’.Nothing dodgy recorded, only a conversation with my wife on the handsfree. She’s not too happy about it as we are currently in the process of moving house and has been recorded talking to me regarding are finances.
So this is how my employer explains it today....
First of all the head of the transport department rang me explaining that when driving we are being recorded audio and visual all the time. Apparently a third party keeps hold of all this information and if an accident occurs my employer can request the recordings in a 30 minute time slot.
Then he insisted in sending me the documents explaining this - unknown to him as he clearly has never read it (Iv never seen it befor either) it clearly states “we do not record audio”....
I rang him back and informed him of his monumental fkcu up and he said he would get back to....
He calls me back with the explanation that there is a fault with my particular vehicle and none of the other new vehicles record audio only images and they are going to turn the audio recording off.
So Iv left it at this for now, I’m still waiting on an email back from HR - the lady on the phone at HR sounded horrified when I told her.
There is a camera mounted facing the driver and a separate audio recorder on the dash so how they have managed to accidentally install this and turn it on seems mysterious. This recording equipment is the same on a new fleet of upwards of 100 vehicles we have received in the last couple of months. I’m assuming all the other people driving these have been getting recorded without them knowing also.
So this is how my employer explains it today....
First of all the head of the transport department rang me explaining that when driving we are being recorded audio and visual all the time. Apparently a third party keeps hold of all this information and if an accident occurs my employer can request the recordings in a 30 minute time slot.
Then he insisted in sending me the documents explaining this - unknown to him as he clearly has never read it (Iv never seen it befor either) it clearly states “we do not record audio”....
I rang him back and informed him of his monumental fkcu up and he said he would get back to....
He calls me back with the explanation that there is a fault with my particular vehicle and none of the other new vehicles record audio only images and they are going to turn the audio recording off.
So Iv left it at this for now, I’m still waiting on an email back from HR - the lady on the phone at HR sounded horrified when I told her.
There is a camera mounted facing the driver and a separate audio recorder on the dash so how they have managed to accidentally install this and turn it on seems mysterious. This recording equipment is the same on a new fleet of upwards of 100 vehicles we have received in the last couple of months. I’m assuming all the other people driving these have been getting recorded without them knowing also.
Edited by PPEhero on Tuesday 12th January 20:25
We have audio and video recording at work in our trucks. It records roughly 2 hours on loop.
All employees are aware. Their terms and conditions do not mention it. Its company property and there is a sign in the drivers room advising them how the system works, what to do in case of accident or incident and how to ensure the system is working as part of their daily walk round.
What we would not do though is release that data to anyone. Thats where, imvho, your boss went wrong by playing it to other staff.
The only person who can watch or hear/see that video is me (TM) or the driver. If something needs to be discussed then its discussed in private.
If the insurance request the video, which has happened on a couple of occasions, I would redact any personal audio which is not relevant to the incident.
All employees are aware. Their terms and conditions do not mention it. Its company property and there is a sign in the drivers room advising them how the system works, what to do in case of accident or incident and how to ensure the system is working as part of their daily walk round.
What we would not do though is release that data to anyone. Thats where, imvho, your boss went wrong by playing it to other staff.
The only person who can watch or hear/see that video is me (TM) or the driver. If something needs to be discussed then its discussed in private.
If the insurance request the video, which has happened on a couple of occasions, I would redact any personal audio which is not relevant to the incident.
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