Bosses auditing personal calls

Thinking of making a quick call to the spouse on your work cellphone? Think twice – your boss may be watching.

A leaked audit shows the Accident Compensation Corporation has gone to great lengths to uncover inappropriate staff phone use, and experts advise employees to be prepared for similar scrutiny in any workplace.

An audit of seven senior staff with high mobile-phone bills found that some made more than 90 per cent personal calls, yet none of those calls were repaid.

One man spent $900 on calling one number more than 5000 times in four months.

The ACC has been tightening the belt as it tries to rein in a $4.8 billion blowout in expected costs, but the report shows it is not just clients who are feeling the squeeze.

The auditors created detailed reports on each ACC staff member, counting the number of calls to their commonly called numbers and providing percentage breakdowns of personal and work calls.

Auditors said they uncovered "questionable practices" including overuse of datacards to access the internet from the phone, staff using phones for text parking, and "lack of managerial oversight" leading to "an uncontrolled increase in use and cost".

ACC is now planning a wider survey of more staff.

Employment experts advise workers to be aware that the use of any work equipment could be subject to the same scrutiny, especially in such frugal times.

Employment lawyer Alan Knowsley said anyone using a work mobile phone, computer or car should be aware the boss could be watching.

He said every employer would differ in what they allowed. Some allowed "reasonable" personal calls, others not at all.

"You've got to look at what's the rule the employer's laid down. If they haven't specifically allowed it, it's probably not allowed." He said misusing phones could be a sackable offence.

Unions say the audit displayed a lack of trust that is counter-productive in the workplace.

Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly said employers should focus on staff performance, not phone records. "Workers need to know that employers can have a lot of surveillance about the place, but it's an incredibly low-trusting thing for an employer to do, isn't it? If they're checking everybody's phone, they're telling them they don't really trust them."

Public Service Association national secretary Richard Wagstaff said the audit was evidence of an organisation under extreme financial pressure, but micro-managing staff was not the solution.

ACC phone policy says personal use of a mobile phone is "not a staff benefit", but personal calls under $25 a month do not have to be paid back. Staff members with ACC phones number 770.

People and Business Services general manager Denise Cosgrove said investigations were still continuing and disciplinary action had not been decided. "Naturally any confirmed breach of policy will be viewed seriously and appropriate action taken."

Telecom has a service for business customers that allows staff to separate out personal from business calls by pressing a code or the hash key before they dial the number. These are then billed separately.

- © Fairfax NZ News