Versailles is an amazing vacation destination, but it’s also a court destination for French Ikea officials where they face charges of spying on employees.
According to The Guardian, Jean-François Paris, Ikea France’s former director of risk management, spent upwards of €600,000 a year on private investigators who spied on employees. The court investigation focuses on 2009 to 2012, but apparently, the spying had been going on for a decade before that.
Courts in France take time, and here we are in 2021, finally getting Ikea’s day in court.
While I reported in 2013 that these investigations focused on employee sick leave, it turns out that the claims cover far more.
For instance, prosecutors claim that Ikea conducted investigations into:
To keep reading, click here: Ikea Executives Face Possible Jail Time for Spying on Employees
What’s the phrase? “Yikes on several bikes”?
“The group also includes four police officers accused of handing over confidential information….
Prosecutors say the information flow may even have gone both ways, with an internal Ikea France document recommending handing over its report about an employee to police “to get rid of that person via a legal procedure outside the company”. ”
I get that it’s harder for fire people in France, but to try to get them ARRESTED? For things that aren’t related to the company or their work there?
And it didn’t occur to anyone that even if this is legal, it would be a public relations nightmare?
An entire warehouse full of bikes….
Susan,
Here in the U.S., if employees are engaging in “concerted activities” or union activities (under the NLRA or RLA), it is always unlawful for an employer to spy on them.
While there are no fines or jail time (yet), fines are proposed under the PRO Act.
Yet employees who are using company computers and company phones should expect limitations on what they can or cannot do. The company has a special program that will not allow normal browsing to off-work sites like a home computer. This is not monitoring but a program for that business. Even the internet connection is tied to those computers. Usually, the business has an IT department that monitors the usage of the computer to prevent hacking or involuntary release of proprietary information. Employees usually sign an agreement on conditions for the use of the equipment. That’s not spying, that is monitoring the equipment, Some internet sites can’t be accessed with most office computers unless the individual does an unauthorized download. That is also illegal.