Workplace & Labour Rights

This Is a Company Phone — We Can Read Your Messages

Q: But you were still in the trial period, so no severance is owed.

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Q: Your salary was above the cap, so we only owe the capped amount.

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An employer claims unlimited access to an employee's communications on a work device

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The Situation

What They Said

“You used a company phone — we have every right to read all your messages and monitor everything you do on it.”

An employer claims the right to access all communications — including personal messages sent via messaging apps, email, or text — on a work-issued device, without having communicated a monitoring policy to the employee, without the employee's consent, and without limitation on the scope of monitoring.

The Fallacy

Ownership as Unlimited Access

The employer conflates ownership of the device with unlimited rights over all communications that pass through it. In general legal principles, the fact that a device belongs to the employer does not extinguish the employee's reasonable expectation of privacy, does not grant the employer the right to intercept communications without consent, and does not eliminate the protections of applicable data protection and communications privacy laws. Device ownership and communication privacy are distinct legal questions.

What the Law Says

Your Legal Foundation

Ley de Contrato de Trabajo 20.744

art. 245 de la Ley de Contrato de Trabajo — Employer monitoring limits

“In cases of dismissal by the employer without just cause, whether or not prior notice has been given and after the trial period has elapsed, the employer must pay the worker compensation equivalent to one (1) month's salary for each year of service or fraction greater than three (3) months, based on the best monthly, normal and customary remuneration earned during the last year or during the period of service if it is shorter.”

The employer's claim to monitor all communications without a policy or consent is not directly addressed by this article, which concerns severance pay for unjust dismissal. However, if the employee is dismissed for refusing to consent to such monitoring, the dismissal may be considered unjust, triggering the severance obligation under Article 245.

What Scripture Says

God's Word on This

Proverbs 11:13 (NET)

“The one who goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets, but the one who is trustworthy conceals a matter.”

Scripture honours the keeping of confidences and condemns the exposure of private communications. An employer who reads and shares an employee's personal messages — absent consent, absent necessity, absent law — is violating both the law and the principle Scripture establishes: trust is built by honouring what is private, not by treating surveillance as a business right.

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What They'll Say Next

Common Counter-Arguments

After you respond, they may push back with these arguments. Members get the full rebuttal for each.

They might say: “But you were still in the trial period, so no severance is owed.”

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They might say: “Your salary was above the cap, so we only owe the capped amount.”

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