Employment Law Topics – Mobile phone use at work
It seems that most of us seem almost surgically attached to mobile phones or similar devices these days and whilst the advances in technology are quite breathtaking, one of the negative outcomes is the increasing habit of employee’s using mobile phones whilst they are at work.
This subject is a bit like smoking breaks – for some reason some people believe that they have a “right” to be able to use their mobile phones whilst at work – they don’t!
This page is intended to provide some simple advice and guidance on how you can manage the use or otherwise of mobile phones at work. If you want some more specific help on this topic please call us on 01543 308642
If you already have an employee handbook (or similar) it is probably worth checking what you have in place regarding the use of phones at work.
We regularly come across some vintage handbooks which may not make any reference to mobile phones at all.
If your handbook does have a policy on the use of mobile phones and yet your employees do not observe the rules you might sensibly start by drawing to your employee’s attention to the rules and to tell them that you will be applying the policy from now on.
If you don’t have a policy or guideline it is sensible to draft a new set of rules and to communicate these rules to all of your staff.
By the way – don’t worry that your employee’s are ignoring your handbook lots of boring employee handbooks remain untouched for years!
One of the most important things that you need to do if you do decide to apply your rules or to introduce new rules regarding mobile phones, is to make sure that your employee’s understand the rules. To aid this you can ask employees to sign a form to acknowledge that they have read and understand the rules.
So what rules should you apply? In most situations people do not need to access their mobile phones during work hours. We suggest that you do not allow mobile phones in the workplace and that you give people the freedom to use their phones during breaks such as lunchtime or tea breaks.
As with many other situations there may be an occasion when someone needs to take an important call during working hours and you are fully able to exercise your discretion in allowing such calls to be made or received.
It is possible that you might meet resistance from some employees who are worried about their families and those close to them not to be able to reach them in case of emergency. This is a valid concern and whilst it shouldn’t prevent you from preventing mobile phone use at work, it may be sensible to ensure that all of your employees are aware of the relevant telephone numbers for their families to call in such circumstances. It may be sensible to print off specific phone numbers to take home so that they are available to anyone in case of an emergency.
As we said earlier, if you do have difficulty with this matter and you require additional help and guidance, please feel free to call us 01543 308642.
DISCLAIMER – should you decide to use any of the information provided on this site without our expert guidance, you do so at your own risk.
Almost every employment/employee related situation is unique and as such it is always wise to seek specific expert advice before undertaking any action.
