Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 24 May 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Employee Experiences of Technological Surveillance in the Financial Services Sector: Discussion

Photo of Mick BarryMick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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I will make a brief point. I was interested in what Dr. O'Sullivan said about Germany. It is not only a country that has a comparatively strong trade union movement.

It is also a country which, at a certain point in the 20th century, was under a dictatorship. Then the east of the country experienced communism and the Stasi. There is a real sensitivity about these issues in Germany. It seems that what Dr. O'Sullivan described in Germany is that it is essentially illegal and banned. The one circumstance being if it is a criminal investigation. That is a real opt-in scenario. The other option is to say this is the reality and we deal with it but it has to be covered by legislation, there has to be collective bargaining and we will work out what can be done and cannot be done in terms of consent. I would lean more closely towards the German model. Will the witnesses comment on that?