Cameras at work in WA: when is filming staff lawful?

Is it legal to film staff at work in WA?

Security cameras are common in shops, warehouses, offices and mine sites. Employers install them to protect people and property, to deter theft and, sometimes, to check what staff are doing. Workers often ask whether they can be filmed, and what happens if they find a hidden camera.

Some states have a law written specifically for workplace surveillance. New South Wales, for example, requires an employer to give employees written notice at least 14 days before camera surveillance starts (Workplace Surveillance Act 2005 (NSW) s 10). Western Australia has no equivalent. In WA the main law is the Surveillance Devices Act 1998 (WA), which applies to everyone, not just employers.

What the Surveillance Devices Act says

Section 6 of the Act says a person must not install, use or maintain an optical surveillance device (a camera or anything else that can visually record or observe) to record or watch a private activity they are not part of, or to record a private activity they are part of, unless an exception applies.

The key words are private activity. The Act defines it as an activity carried on in circumstances suggesting that any of the people involved wants it to be seen only by those taking part. It does not include an activity carried on where people ought reasonably to expect they may be observed.

That definition does a lot of work in a workplace. Serving customers at a counter, driving a forklift or working in an open-plan office are usually things other people can see, so a visible camera filming them is generally not filming a private activity. A camera in a toilet, a change room or a closed office used for private conversations is a very different matter.

The penalties are the same whoever does the filming: up to $5,000 or 12 months' imprisonment (or both) for an individual, and up to $50,000 for a company. Section 9 separately makes it an offence, with the same penalties, to knowingly publish or pass on a record of a private activity obtained by a surveillance device, subject to exceptions such as legal proceedings.

Hidden cameras and the exceptions

Section 6 does not apply to filming under a warrant or an emergency authorisation, filming under a law of the Commonwealth, filming that records a private activity unintentionally, or filming allowed under Part 5 of the Act (the public interest provisions).

Where the person doing the filming is a party to the private activity, it is also allowed if every principal party consents, expressly or impliedly. It is also allowed if one principal party consents and the filming is reasonably necessary to protect that party's lawful interests, or is done by a law enforcement officer on duty, or on a law enforcement officer's instructions during an investigation into a suspected criminal offence.

Those consent exceptions help only someone who is a party to the activity being filmed. An employer who films staff is usually not a party to what they are doing, so the real question is whether the activity is a private activity at all. A hidden camera over a stockroom shelf where theft keeps happening may record nothing private; the same camera in a staff change room would. A suspicion of wrongdoing does not by itself make secret filming of a private activity lawful, and an employer considering covert cameras should get advice first.

Privacy law and the new privacy tort

The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) sets rules for handling personal information, including camera footage. Two limits matter here. Businesses with annual turnover of $3,000,000 or less are generally exempt (s 6D). And s 7B(3) exempts a private sector employer's acts directly related to the employment relationship and an employee record it holds.

Since 10 June 2025 the Privacy Act has also provided a statutory tort (a right to sue) for serious invasions of privacy (Schedule 2). A person can sue if someone intentionally or recklessly intruded on their seclusion or misused information about them, they had a reasonable expectation of privacy, the invasion was serious, and the public interest in their privacy outweighed any competing public interest. A claim generally has to start within one year of learning of the invasion, and no later than three years after it.

It cuts both ways

The Act binds workers too. An employee who hides a camera or records colleagues' private conversations can commit an offence (s 5 deals with listening devices in similar terms), and can be disciplined for it. In Stoddard v Crushing Services International Pty Ltd [2025] FWC 2673, a truck driver who secretly recorded a supervisor on his smartwatch won his unfair dismissal claim, but the Fair Work Commission treated the recording as misconduct and cut his compensation by 20%.

What this means for you

If you are an employer, tell staff about cameras in a written policy, use visible cameras and signs, keep cameras out of toilets, change rooms and other private spaces, and limit who can view and share footage. If you are an employee and find a hidden camera somewhere private, or are disciplined on the strength of secret footage, it is worth getting advice early about whether the filming was lawful and how it can be used.