This is a detail that does not protect the company from possible disputes: «In the employment context, the consent of the individual worker is never considered to be freely given – explained Brozzetti –, the Guarantor does not welcome asymmetric situations such as those where there is a relationship of dependency».
Brozzetti points out that there are already user status indicators in Microsoft Teams that suggest information about employee activity. Apart from that, whether or not there are workers at the work site is data that the employer should already have. Therefore, according to Brozzetti, the company will not have any particular interest in activating this option.
However, if the company decides to introduce new Teams functionality, a union agreement or, if there is no representative, permission from the National Labor Inspectorate. Without one of these conditions, the employer cannot enable functions involving remote control that are deemed non-essential.
Precedent in Europe
In recent years in Europe there have been several cases where companies were sanctioned for overly invasive monitoring practices. In 2024 Amazon France fined 34 million euros for use of a work-level monitoring system deemed excessive by authorities. Even earlier, in Germany, clothing chains H&M received a €35 million fine for withholding employees’ personal information, including aspects of their private lives.
In terms of the Teams update, Brozzetti also highlighted other issues that must be addressed: «As it is an American-owned platform, it must be clarified whether the information collected by the new function remains on the site or is moved to non-EU servers. In the event of data transfer to countries outside the European Union, there is a specific set of legality conditions that must be assessed.”
