Trade unions representing Dublin City Council employees are seeking an urgent meeting with management about plans to introduce a powerful computer system capable of monitoring all staff telephone and Internet use, writes Jamie Smyth, Technology Reporter
Dublin City Council has placed a tender seeking a company which can supply a monitoring system capable of analysing up to 30,000 mobile and fixed-line phone calls every day.
Telephone use by the council's 6,500 staff will be monitored by the system which will be capable of producing daily reports for managers to detect if staff are making too many personal calls.
Detailed specifications in the tender seen by The Irish Times show the system will also incorporate an alarm mechanism that can be activated if a staff member dials a banned phone number or visits a non-work-related website.
Mr Brian Curtis, executive manager at Dublin City Council, said the new system would not be "Big Brother", but rather would enable staff members to monitor their use of facilities.
The system is expected to cost Dublin City Council up to €60,000 to install but is expected to be self-financing within the first year of operation.
Up until now the council had four separate systems to monitor staff use of phones and Internet.
In practice this makes it almost impossible to provide accurate and relevant data on use to individual managers.
The new system will also help the council to track illegal use of company equipment such as downloading music or child pornography, if it is required.
Mandate, one of the unions which represents staff at Dublin City Council, said yesterday it was seriously concerned about the system and, particularly, the lack of consultation with staff.
"We had no prior knowledge about this new system," said Mr Brian Gorman, assistant general secretary at Mandate with responsibility for the council.
He said the union had a problem with the proposal because there was no evidence that the system was needed, or that any substantive issues regarding personal telephone or Internet usage had occurred.
Mandate is now seeking an urgent meeting with management at Dublin City Council to discuss the issue.
Mr Philip Nolan, solicitor at Mason, Hayes & Curran, said that under data protection law, employers needed to obtain the consent of staff before monitoring Internet or e-mail usage.
The tender shows the council plans to amend its policy shortly.