Canberra employers and their insurance companies now have tougher powers than police to snoop into the private lives of more than 160,000 workers, the ACT's unions claim.
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New "workplace privacy" laws, passed by the Legislative Assembly last month, will allow bosses and insurers to put employees under covert surveillance on the suspicion of "unlawful activity", UnionsACT says.
By contrast, police must have a suspicion of "criminal activity" before they can launch surveillance.
Unions say the new laws will expose public and private sector workers to covert spying by employers and insurance companies, and are "a serious and unjustified erosion of privacy and rights of working people".
But the ACT government says the unions' claims are overblown. It says the new workplace laws will be subject to tough judicial oversight, employers will need to secure the consent of a magistrate before unleashing their private eyes, and spying on workers while they are in their own homes will be banned.
UnionsACT is unconvinced and will launch a marketing blitz on Wednesday, calling for a rethink of the legislation and specifically going after Justice Minister Shane Rattenbury in his Kurrajong electorate.
The workplace privacy laws have been on the books since 2011 but a statutory review of the legislation led to lobbying by the ACT Bar Association and the ACT Insurance Authority to allow employers to undertake surveillance of their workers in their spare time.
"While most employees conduct themselves appropriately in relation to their work and workplace, it is important that we have measures in place that allow an employer to appropriately investigate circumstances of unlawful activity," Mr Rattenbury said last week after the amendments were passed without opposition in the Assembly.
"There are instances where an employee's unlawful behaviour, in relation to their work, may extend beyond the workplace.
"An employee could be using work resources for non-work related purposes, might pocket profits from the sale of work goods, or an employer may need to defend a damages claim."
But UnionsACT, the territory's peak body for the union movement, which is also clashing with the government over the "Fit Note" pilot scheme, says the safeguards are not good enough.
"The thresholds for 'reasonable belief' and 'unlawful activity' are worryingly low and vague," UnionsACT secretary Alex White said.
"The threshold for law enforcement agencies to conduct similar covert surveillance requires a suspicion of serious criminal activity.
"The lower threshold ... in this bill would allow private employers and insurance companies wide powers to intrude into the private lives of workers for minor, non-criminal matters."
Mr Rattenbury said he was satisfied there were enough safeguards to ensure that privacy was not unreasonably breached.
"Where there are reasonable grounds to believe an employee is engaged in unlawful activity directly related to their work, the legislation will allow a magistrate to authorise limited surveillance of an employee outside of the workplace," the minister said.
"This can already occur inside the workplace in limited circumstances and with safeguards.
"The magistrate must appoint a suitably qualified 'surveillance supervisor', independent of the employer, to manage the surveillance.
"They must not share surveillance records, and can only give the employer the surveillance material directly related to the unlawful behaviour. They must also erase and destroy all other irrelevant material."
