Other Policies · Section 36
Phone Calls
This policy governs how employees may use the organisation's telephones during the course of their working time as well as why phone calls are monitored. It is important that all employees read this…
About this policy
This policy governs how employees may use the organisation's telephones during the course of their working time as well as why phone calls are monitored. It is important that all employees read this policy carefully as the organisation requires compliance from all members of staff at all times.
Purpose and scope
The policy has been devised in order to:
ensure the effective running of the organisation's business;
inform employees about how they may and may not use the organisation's telephones; and
ensure compliance with legislation.
This policy applies to all employees of the organisation and also to other staff who may work for the organisation on a temporary or contract basis.
Any breach of this policy will be regarded as misconduct, leading to disciplinary action up to and including summary dismissal.
Personal and private use
The organisation provides its employees with access to the telephone for work-related purposes. However, because it is accepted that employees may sometimes need to attend to personal matters during working hours, limited personal use is permitted, provided that this does not interfere with employees' work, nor take up an unreasonable amount of time.
It is important to note that employees may not at any time use the organisation's telephones to:
carry out freelance work, or work for another employer;
contact recruitment agencies or other employers with a view to seeking alternative employment;
buy or sell goods, other than when authorised to do so in the course of their job;
gamble;
communicate information that is confidential to the organisation outside the organisation, unless authorised to do so in the course of their job;
chat for lengthy periods of time to friends or relatives; or
waste working time using the telephone for purposes not associated with their job or the organisation's business.
Monitoring
The organisation monitors the use of its telephones. Monitoring is in the organisation's legitimate interests for the following reasons:
Compliance with FCA regulations
Training purposes
Ensuring script is adhered to
Security purposes and to deter/detect unauthorised use
To assess if call is deemed a ‘Fail’
Resource Allocation
Cost Analysis
The data controller is TBC
Employees should be aware that the telephone calls that they make or receive may be intercepted by the organisation. Over and above interception, telephone calls may be recorded for the purpose of monitoring quality standards and training.
Monitoring will normally be conducted by the Line Managers and Trainers. The information obtained through monitoring may be shared internally, including with members of the HR team, an employee's line manager, managers in the business area in which the employee works and IT staff if access to the data is necessary for performance of their roles. However, information would normally be shared in this way only if the organisation has reasonable grounds to believe that a work telephone has been misused.
Information obtained through monitoring will not be disclosed to third parties (unless the organisation is under a duty to report matters to a regulatory authority or to a law enforcement agency).
Workers have a number of rights in relation to their data, including the right to make a subject access request and the right to have data rectified or erased in some circumstances. You can find further details of these rights and how to exercise them in the organisation's data protection policy. If workers believe that the organisation has not complied with their data protection rights, they can complain to the Information Commissioner.