Australian employers are asking private investigators to spy on WFH staff
Exclusive: Some Australian companies are asking private investigators to spy on their work-from-home (WFH) employees, ringing alarm bells for remote workers who run errands while on the clock.
Sydney private investigator Amy Elliott first noticed an uptick in business owners asking her to perform “spot checks” on WFH employees after the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a generational workplace shift.
Private Investigator Amy Elliott has been approached by employers around Australia for WFH surveillance. Amy Elliott
Elliott, who runs National Inquiry Agency (NIA), said her team around Australia is regularly approached by corporate clients who ask them to tail employees they suspect are not performing their duties at home.
Over 6.7 million Australians now work from home at least some of the time, according research released by Roy Morgan.
NIA is approached by employers “a few times a year” for WFH surveillance, Elliott said.
It can be as simple as conducting a door knock to check if a remote worker is actually at their desk.
Most of the time, Elliott said the culprits are taking hours out of their day to do their errands, such as spending time at the shopping centre instead of working.
“If the employee is working from home, and says they’re going for lunch break or is not contactable, they want us to check if they’re actually doing their job instead of at the beach or at the movies,” Elliott told nine.com.au.
“We’ll do door knocks, bring them out and say ‘Sorry, we’ve got the wrong address’.
“An employee won’t even know that a PI has knocked on the door or done a spot check. It’s very quick. Spot checks take about 15 to 20 seconds.”
If a company suspects its employee is periodically lying about where they are during work hours, Elliott may be asked to conduct “hardcore” surveillance, but this is rare.
WFH employees who leave their desk for long periods of the day should take heed of this warning. iStock
An investigator might then report back with evidence for the employer to build a case for termination or suspension.
“Basically to find out, are they taking hours to do something else on the employer’s dime?” Elliott said.
There are a few reasons that employers may want to track a remote employee’s physical movements.
In some cases, a business has been concerned that their WFH staffer is actually juggling two full-time jobs, a trend known as “job stacking”.
NIA has not proved that any Australian employee is doing this.
But usually, it’s because of repeated productivity or performance issues.
“And they want to have evidence to undertake those performance reviews, if we can prove what they are doing,” Elliott added.
Elliott said the companies she is contacted by range from small businesses to mid-size corporations with 15 employees or more.
Every PI must follow the privacy laws of the jurisdiction they operate in.
Elliott said most employers who contact her team already have a strong suspicion a staff member is not performing their role. Supplied
Principal Lawyer of Astor Legal Avinash Singh said every state and territory outlaws surreptitious surveillance activities without consent.
If an employer wants to legally undertake this kind of monitoring, it needs to be written into a contract.
Employers must also respect the applicable privacy laws when monitoring employees.
“An employer would need an employee’s implied or express consent to conduct any physical surveillance,” Singh told nine.com.au.
“The most common way of obtaining this consent is by including a clause in the employee’s employment contract.
“Generally, the clause would have the employee consent to surveillance of their WFH activities if there was a reasonable suspicion they were not fulfilling their duties.”
It is also common practice for companies to hire private investigation agencies to watch employees taking leave for workplace injuries.
Queensland private investigator Cassie Crofts is usually paid to tail cheating partners or investigate a person’s online dating profile.
Cassie Crofts said she was approached by a small business owner to spy on a WFH employee. Cassie Crofts
She was surprised to be contacted by a small business owner who was concerned his remote employees were not working their contracted hours.
“He was an older gentleman, and I think he wasn’t aware of the tech side of things,” Crofts, who runs Venus Investigations, told nine.com.au.
“To him, the easiest way to work out if his employees were working was to hire a PI to go and actually check.”
Crofts said she turned down this job because it wasn’t in her wheelhouse.
She also couldn’t guarantee the client that she could get the information he needed.
“I can go sit outside someone’s house for their eight-hour shift, I can tell you if they leave the house, but if they stay in their house with the blinds closed, then I’m charging someone thousands of dollars to sit in my car and see nothing,” she said.
It was the first time Crofts had been approached by a business owner to do this type of investigative work.
UTS Associate Professor of Workplace and Business Law Dr Giuseppe Carabetta said this practice reflects a “productivity paranoia” infecting workplaces around Australia.
“Surveillance has increased globally alongside hybrid work adoption. But at the same time, hybrid work has stabilised and remains pretty widely accepted in Australia, with many employers expecting it to continue,” Carabetta said.
“Culturally, we’re seeing tension: acceptance of WFH, but residual managerial distrust about visibility and control.
“That tension manifests in surveillance practices rather than outright rejection of WFH.”
Increased surveillance on employees usually has the opposite effect.
The “intensity and intrusiveness” of being watched can manifest in slowed productivity, low morale and high turnover.
Carabetta also warned that employers must have strong justification, such as evidence of gross misconduct, if they want to spy on staff electronically or in-person.
“Using investigators signals a breakdown of trust and is legally risky unless very tightly justified,” he said.
“And from an ethical standpoint, this ‘extra mile’ risks crossing from legitimate oversight into disproportionate intrusion.”
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