Lidl 'spied on staff using Stasi methods'[Germany]

Telegraph ^ | 27 Mar 2008 | Harry de Quetteville

[BGHater]

The supermarket chain Lidl has been accused of using methods reminiscent of the Stasi secret police to spy on employees in Germany.

The company, which has more than 400 stores in Britain, reportedly monitored details of intimate conversations and personal relationships.

Surveillance teams would arrive early on Monday mornings to install between five and 10 miniature cameras in Lidl stores, according to the German news magazine Stern.

The retail chain insisted that the cameras were not to spy on staff but for "the identification of possible misconduct" adding that "details and observations do not apply to casual conversation".

But in several hundred pages of transcripts quoted by Stern, details of employees' personal appearance, the length of lavatory breaks, their capabilities and extracts from personal conversations are all monitored and recorded.

One entry, quoted in Stern, reads: "Thursday. 14.50. Frau T spoke on the phone with her boyfriend. They are talking about their dinner plans. Even though she knows there are lots of customers."

Peter Schaar, a German government data protection official, said that "appropriate authorities" would begin investigations into the accusations.

Lidl, which employs 170,000 people on more than 7,000 sites across Europe, has been accused of treating staff poorly in the past.

Melanie Fillmore, a spokesman for Lidl, said: "This kind of monitoring does not happen in the UK. We don't have any [cameras] that are hidden. All staff are aware they are there.

"It is important that there is CCTV for security reasons. Only 30 per cent of our stores have camera systems, primarily in inner city areas as a deterrent against crime."

[pepsionice]

I live here in Germany...and have a Lidl in the local area. I’ve seen the cameras in the story...at least ten different cameras. I thought it was kinda funny....it was a store about the size of 1.5 college basketball courts....and that many security cameras....for what is primarily a grocery store. So they had a full-time detective doing this....and barely eight other employees running around and actually running the rest of the grocery. Pretty amusing.