What AI workplace monitoring actually looks like
Workplace monitoring using AI has moved well beyond reading emails and tracking internet use. Australian employers are now using tools that analyse productivity metrics, measure how long employees spend on different applications, monitor keystrokes and screenshots on a time-sampling basis, analyse email sentiment and communication patterns, use computer vision to monitor attentiveness in remote video calls, and track time and activity through GPS in field-based roles.
Whether any of this is legal for your employer to do depends on where you are in Australia, what type of device you're using, and whether you've been told about it.
The law by state
New South Wales: The Workplace Surveillance Act 2005 (NSW) requires employers to give employees written notice at least 14 days before introducing any surveillance system. The notice must describe what is being monitored and how. Covert surveillance — surveillance without notice — is generally unlawful unless a magistrate authorises it. Computer surveillance, camera surveillance, and tracking surveillance are all covered. AI systems that monitor computer activity fall within the Act's scope.
Australian Capital Territory: The Workplace Privacy Act 2011 (ACT) contains similar provisions to the NSW Act. Employers must notify employees before conducting workplace surveillance, and the notification requirements are enforced by the ACT Human Rights Commission.
Other states and territories: Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory do not have specific workplace surveillance laws. In these jurisdictions, the general framework is: employers can monitor work systems and work devices, but monitoring must be consistent with employment contracts, relevant policies, and the Privacy Act where it applies. The Privacy Act's Australian Privacy Principles restrict how personal information — including information collected through monitoring — can be collected, used, and disclosed.
What employers generally can do
On work-owned devices and systems, employers can generally monitor internet use, email communications on work email accounts, file access and transfers, time spent on applications, physical location through work-issued devices, and — with appropriate notice — video and audio in workplaces. The key requirement in most jurisdictions is disclosure: employees should know that monitoring is occurring, what is being monitored, and how the information may be used.
What's in a grey area
AI sentiment analysis of communications, continuous keystroke logging, biometric monitoring (particularly camera-based monitoring of facial expressions or attention), and monitoring of personal devices — even when used for work purposes — sit in contested legal territory. The Privacy Act's framework, the Commonwealth public sector employment framework, and anti-discrimination law all potentially constrain these practices in ways that aren't fully resolved by existing court and tribunal decisions.
AI tools that make employment decisions — or significantly influence them — based on monitored data raise additional concerns. If monitoring data is used to support performance management, disciplinary proceedings, or termination, those processes must still comply with Fair Work Act requirements for procedural fairness.
If you think monitoring is excessive or unfair
If you believe monitoring is occurring without appropriate notice, is being used in a discriminatory way, or is unreasonably invasive, your options include: raising it with your employer or union; complaining to the OAIC if it involves misuse of personal information; raising it with the Fair Work Commission if it's connected to a workplace dispute; or, in NSW and the ACT, accessing the specific enforcement mechanisms under workplace surveillance legislation. Document your concerns and any evidence before raising them formally.
