CCTV and Clinic Staff - the Employer Duties Everyone Forgets

The owner of a physiotherapy practice installed cameras in the waiting room and at reception two years ago -- mainly with patient safety and rehab equipment protection in mind. He prepared a privacy notice for patients, put a "premises under surveillance" sticker on the door, and considered the matter closed. A few months later he summarily dismissed his receptionist, citing among other things camera footage as evidence of poor job performance. The case went to a labour court -- where it turned out the recording might not even be admissible as evidence, because the employee had never been formally informed about the workplace monitoring rules.

This is a mistake that keeps recurring at small practices: CCTV monitoring gets treated purely as a GDPR issue toward patients, forgetting that cameras also record employees -- and the Labour Code imposes separate, additional obligations toward them. In this article we explain what Article 22² of the Polish Labour Code requires, what documentation a practice employing staff needs to have, and why an employee's "consent" to CCTV is a concept that simply doesn't apply here.

Why monitoring employees is a separate topic from monitoring patients

A camera installed at reception or in a treatment room simultaneously records two different categories of people: patients, who pass through the practice occasionally, and employees, who spend several hours a day, five days a week, within the lens's field of view. The general rules for implementing CCTV monitoring from a GDPR angle -- privacy notices, zone marking, legal bases toward patients -- are covered in the article CCTV monitoring at a physiotherapy practice and GDPR. This article focuses solely on the other side of the coin: the obligations labour law imposes on the employer toward employed staff.

The legal basis here is not GDPR alone, but primarily Article 22² of the Labour Code, which regulates video monitoring of employees as a separate legal institution -- with its own procedural requirements, permitted purposes, and consequences for non-compliance. A practice that installed cameras thinking only about patients very often fails to meet these additional requirements toward its own staff -- physiotherapists, receptionists, cleaning staff.

Purposes for which employee monitoring is allowed

Article 22² of the Labour Code does not allow monitoring to be justified on just any grounds. Cameras may serve only the purposes explicitly listed in the provision:

• ensuring employee safety -- e.g. in a practice with access to electrical equipment or substances requiring caution,
• protecting property -- rehab equipment, cash at reception, records,
• controlling production -- rarely relevant in practice for a physiotherapy clinic,
• keeping confidential information secret, the disclosure of which could harm the employer.

What's not on this list -- and one of the most common mistakes made at smaller businesses -- is assessing the quality or efficiency of work. An employer cannot install a camera in order to check whether a physiotherapist is spending enough time with a patient, whether a receptionist is taking too many breaks, or to use the footage to assess staff pace of work. Monitoring installed or used for that purpose exceeds the scope permitted under Article 22² of the Labour Code, even if the cameras were formally installed under the pretext of "protecting property."

In practice the line can be thin -- the same camera in the waiting room protects equipment against theft while also recording how long each visit takes. The problem arises only when the employer uses the footage to assess an employee's efficiency, not when the camera merely technically captures that image along the way.

The duty to inform employees -- at least two weeks in advance

The most formalized element of the procedure is the notice duty under Article 22² § 10 of the Labour Code. An employer intending to introduce CCTV monitoring must inform employees of its introduction no later than 2 weeks before the monitoring is switched on -- in a manner adopted at that employer.

This is not a best-practice suggestion, but a hard procedural requirement. The period runs from when the information is provided to when the cameras actually go live -- so it isn't enough to inform employees "in passing" a week before launch, or worse, after the fact. If a practice plans to install or expand monitoring, the rollout schedule needs to account for this.

The information given to employees should cover:

• the fact that monitoring is being introduced and the date it will go live,
• the purpose of the monitoring (among the purposes permitted under Article 22² of the Labour Code),
• the scope of the monitoring (which rooms, which zones),
• how and for how long recordings are stored,
• the legal basis for processing data from the monitoring.

Employees hired after monitoring has already been switched on are not subject to the two-week notice period -- but before being allowed to start work, they must be informed in writing of the monitoring rules.

Documents required at the practice

The mere fact of having informed employees verbally, with no trace in the documentation, is in practice hard to prove in a dispute. That's why a practice employing staff should have a full set of documents confirming monitoring was correctly implemented.

Statement / confirmation that the employee was informed of the monitoring rules

A document signed by each employee confirming they were informed of the purpose, scope, method, and retention period of monitoring recordings -- ideally dated in a way that demonstrates the two-week notice period was met before the cameras were switched on (or that the employee was informed before starting work, if hired later).

A monitoring clause in work regulations or a notice

Under Article 22² § 11 of the Labour Code, the purposes, scope, and manner of applying monitoring are set out in a collective bargaining agreement, work regulations, or a notice, if the employer is not covered by a collective agreement or has no obligation to adopt work regulations. In practice this means:

• practices employing at least 50 employees (or fewer, if a workplace trade union organization is pushing for regulations) are required to have work regulations -- the monitoring rules should be included there,
• smaller practices that aren't required to have work regulations introduce monitoring rules in the form of a notice -- a separate document setting out the purpose, scope, and manner of applying monitoring, communicated to employees in the manner customary at that workplace.

Marking the zones covered by monitoring

The employer must mark rooms and areas covered by CCTV monitoring visibly and legibly, using appropriate signs or audio announcements, no later than one day before the monitoring is switched on. The marking must be visible to both employees and patients -- which connects this obligation to the zone-marking topic covered in more depth in relation to GDPR toward patients.

Document	Who it covers	When it must be ready
Statement confirming awareness of monitoring rules	Every employee	At least 2 weeks before launch (new hires -- before starting work)
Work regulations with a monitoring clause	Practices required to have work regulations	Before monitoring is switched on
Notice about monitoring	Practices not required to have work regulations	Before monitoring is switched on
Marking of zones covered by cameras	Employees and patients	No later than 1 day before launch

[SP] Example -- Solo practice: A physiotherapist running a one-person practice employs one part-time receptionist. Instead of work regulations (which she isn't required to have given the small headcount), she prepares a short notice about monitoring, hands it to the receptionist against a written acknowledgment of receipt two weeks before turning on the reception camera, and marks the entrance with an appropriate sticker.

[GR] Example -- Group practice: A practice employing eight physiotherapists and two receptionists expands its existing monitoring with an extra camera in the equipment storeroom. The owner prepares an addendum to the existing notice, informs the whole team two weeks in advance by email with a read receipt, and collects signed statements from all employees before the new camera goes live.

Does an employee have to consent to monitoring

This question comes up at nearly every practice planning to install cameras -- and the answer can be surprising. The legal basis for video monitoring of an employee is not their consent, but a provision of the Labour Code combined with the employer's legitimate interest under GDPR. This means the employer does not need to -- and should not -- obtain a formal consent from employees to monitoring in the sense in which consent is understood as a legal basis for processing.

The reason is simple: in an employer-employee relationship, consent as a legal basis raises doubts about whether it's truly voluntary, given the clear power imbalance between the parties. An employee, fearing consequences, rarely feels in a position to refuse to give their employer "consent." That's why the law does not base monitoring on consent, but on an explicit statutory provision -- which also means an employee cannot effectively object to monitoring introduced in accordance with the procedure, as long as it falls within the permitted purposes.

This does not, however, release the employer from the notice duty. The absence of a consent requirement does not mean the absence of a notice requirement -- these are two separate matters. It is properly informing the employee (following the timing, form, and content described above) that actually makes monitoring lawful with respect to that employee, not their signature on a consent form.

The risk of a labour court dispute

The consequences of skipping the notice procedure usually surface at the worst possible moment -- when an employment contract is terminated. An employer who summarily dismisses an employee and cites CCTV footage as evidence of a breach of duties must reckon with the employee challenging the admissibility of that evidence before a labour court.

If monitoring was introduced without observing the two-week notice period, without a clause in work regulations or a notice, or without properly marking the zones, a labour court may find that the recording was obtained in violation of the law -- which weakens, and sometimes entirely negates, its evidentiary value in the case. The same applies where monitoring was formally introduced to "protect property" but in practice used to assess a physiotherapist's work efficiency, which exceeds the purposes permitted under Article 22² of the Labour Code.

In practice this creates a double risk: the practice may not only lose the dispute over whether the dismissal was justified, but also faces an allegation of violating employee-monitoring regulations regardless of the outcome of the employment case. Putting monitoring documentation in order before the cameras go live -- not only in reaction to a dispute -- is the only way to ensure a recording can actually serve as evidence when needed.

How to implement employee monitoring in compliance with the law -- step by step

1. Define the purpose of the monitoring in line with the catalogue in Article 22² of the Labour Code -- safety, property protection, confidentiality -- and avoid any link to assessing work performance.
2. Draft a monitoring clause in the work regulations (if the practice is required to have them) or in a notice (if it isn't).
3. Inform employees in writing, no later than 2 weeks before switch-on -- collect confirmations that they've been made aware of the rules.
4. Mark the zones covered by monitoring visibly, no later than one day before the cameras go live.
5. Take care of new hires -- every subsequent employee signs a statement confirming they've been made aware of the monitoring rules before starting work.

Frequently asked questions

Does CCTV monitoring require an employee's consent?

No. The legal basis for video monitoring of an employee is Article 22² of the Labour Code combined with the employer's legitimate interest, not the employee's consent. Formal consent from the employee is not required and should not be treated as the basis for switching on cameras -- what matters instead is properly informing the employee in line with the procedure set out in the Labour Code.

Can a small practice without work regulations introduce employee monitoring at all?

Yes. Practices that, due to their small headcount, are not required to have work regulations set out the monitoring rules in the form of a notice -- a document specifying the purpose, scope, and manner of applying monitoring, communicated to employees. The two-week notice period and the requirement to mark zones apply at such a practice in exactly the same way as at a larger facility with work regulations.

Can an employer use monitoring to assess a physiotherapist's work?

No. The list of purposes for which video monitoring of an employee may be used is closed and explicitly set out in Article 22² of the Labour Code -- it covers employee safety, protection of property, control of production, and keeping confidential information secret. Assessing the quality or efficiency of work is not on that list, so using recordings for that purpose exceeds the permitted scope of monitoring, even if the cameras were formally installed for a different purpose.

What happens if an employer dismisses an employee based on footage from monitoring introduced without following the procedure?

A labour court hearing such a dispute may challenge the admissibility of the recording as evidence if the monitoring was introduced in breach of the procedure -- e.g. without observing the two-week notice period, without a clause in work regulations or a notice, or without properly marking the zones. This weakens the employer's position in a dispute over whether terminating the contract was justified, regardless of what the camera actually recorded.

CTA: Implementing or tidying up monitoring at a practice that employs staff? FizjoReady packages include complete compliance documentation for a physiotherapy practice, which you can supplement with your own internal procedures, including employee monitoring rules. See FizjoReady packages →

Related articles:
- Hiring a physiotherapist -- employment contract and required qualifications
- Occupational health and safety at a physiotherapy practice -- risk assessment
- CCTV monitoring at a physiotherapy practice and GDPR