Privacy - New Employee has Access to My Emails?

[Ejoe]

Have been made redundant recently and emails were disconnected, however, the person replacing the role granted herself access to my work email account, thereby has access to all past and future emails of mine. Is that legal? Does it comply with the privacy act?

Thanks.

 

[Rod]

The work email account is owned by the employer and I expect they have a policy saying work email is not to be used for private use.

It is then hard to argue privacy on an account that is only to be used for work purposes. The employer has the right to know what emails are being sent and received on their IT systems.

Was the redundancy voluntary? Wondering why the employer wants to use an email account that no longer has any role in the organisation. I can see some legitimate reasons, but also some illegitimate reasons.

 

[Ejoe]

The work email account is owned by the employer and I expect they have a policy saying work email is not to be used for private use.

It is then hard to argue privacy on an account that is only to be used for work purposes. The employer has the right to know what emails are being sent and received on their IT systems.

Was the redundancy voluntary? Wondering why the employer wants to use an email account that no longer has any role in the organisation. I can see some legitimate reasons, but also some illegitimate reasons.

Thanks Rod. That's good to know. It wasn't voluntary.