Council aims to monitor staff's phone and email use, writes Jamie Smyth, Technology Reporter.

More than 6,500 employees at Dublin City Council will shortly have their internet, email and telephone use monitored by a powerful computer system capable of analysing 30,000 calls per day.

The Republic's biggest local council has published a tender for the computer system which details that the system will have to be capable of providing managers with daily reports on usage.

Staff members fixed line and mobile phone calls will all be monitored in terms of cost effectiveness to ensure that people are not wasting the council's money on personal calls.

The system will also incorporate an alarm mechanism if a staff member dials a banned telephone number or visits a non-work related website. It will also enable managers to view Web content that is downloaded or uploaded by Council employees.

Mr Brian Curtis, executive manager of ICT at Dublin City Council, says the new system will not be "big brother", rather it will enable staff members to monitor their own use of facilities.

"This will enable staff to do self-service monitoring by looking at their own utilisation of equipment," says Mr Curtis. "It will decentralise the existing monitoring systems in place."

Up until now Dublin City Council had four separate computer systems monitoring its employees' use of phone and internet facilities. This made it extremely difficult to provide useful information on usage to line managers. Now there will be regular usage reports available to managers of individual departments, according to Mr Curtis.

The system will probably cost up to €60,000 but is likely to be self-financing within a year because of the impact it will have on efficiency, according to projections from Dublin City Council.

But the trade union representing Dublin City Council staff, Mandate, is seriously "concerned" about the new system and a lack of consultation with staff employees on the matter.

"We had no prior knowledge about this new system," says Mr Brian Gorman, assistant general secretary at Mandate with responsibility for Dublin City Council. "We have a problem with the proposal because we are not aware of any substantive issues that have occurred at the council which show that we actually require this type of system,"

But Dublin City Council's decision to implement a stricter staff monitoring system follows a trend among Irish firms, according to IT security experts.

Under Irish law, firms can be held liable if staff use corporate networks for illegal activity, such as downloading music or distributing child pornography. This is prompting firms to be more vigilant about monitoring Web use.

"A lot of Irish businesses have already put in place these types of monitoring systems or are now considering it," says Mr Mathieu Gorge, director of the Dublin-based IT firm Vigitrust.

"Increasingly, firms are asking us to put in place solutions that filter access to certain internet sites and monitor productivity, so there is nothing unusual in Dublin City Council's approach."

But sometimes the decisions are taken for the wrong reasons and there is always the risk of a firm going the Big Brother route. It is essential that employers do not use the technology to go after one staff member. They must not miss out on the legal issues that surround monitoring, says Mr Gorge, who has partnered with the Dublin law firm Merrion Legal to offer firms specific legal advice.

The Data Protection Commission in the Republic has yet to issue guidance on workplace monitoring. But the British equivalent recently published an extensive code on the issue. This calls on firms to balance the legitimate interests of employers in deciding how best - within the law - to run their business. And the legitimate expectations of staff that their personal information will be handled properly.

Mr Sean Sweeney, senior compliance officer with the Irish Data Protection Commissioner, says one of the key issues involved with workplace monitoring is transparency for staff.

"There is no problem with an employer putting software in place to monitor internet use but this must be done transparently," he says. "There must be a company internet use policy and disciplinary procedures in place."

Increasingly, unfair dismissal cases are coming before the employment appeals tribunal (see panel) in which staff, who are being accused of misusing the internet, are being awarded compensation because firms do not have computer usage policies.

The biggest mistake made by firms is not developing or updating a "computer usage policy" for staff, says Mr Paul Lambert, a solicitor with Merrion Legal. Another common problem is that firms do not have a single senior executive in charge of the monitoring and disciplinary procedures. Firms need to set a neutral contact point in case there is a bullying claim against a manager who may have ordered greater monitoring of a particular individual, says Mr Lambert.

Mr David Hackett, head of the Information Technology Group at the solicitors Eugene F Collins, says there also needs to be a sense of proportionality about staff usage of company resources.

"In Ireland there would be an acceptance by most firms that some personal use of company equipment is acceptable, particularly if it is out of office time," he says. "So there should also be clear guidelines to staff about exactly what is not acceptable."

These issues will be addressed by Dublin City Council over the next few months as it seeks to put in place a viable policy for its unions. Whether this will please all its staff remains to be seen.