And does every small business owner in this country seek legal advice prior to installing cameras in the public areas of their shop?
No. But any small business owner who is not at least aware of the law can leave themselves open to problems later.
When we took over our business I was not aware of the plethora of laws which cover the workplace and employment. There's laws on workplace health and safety, employee pay and conditions, privacy, surveillance, superannuation, immigration to name a few. Being in the food industry, we were very much under scrutiny as the industry has a bad name- so it was even more important to ensure that we did everything by the book as much as we knew how- and even that wasn't enough. We have had the workplace ombudsman do random checks, as well as the workplace health and safety people, and of course the food safety people. (The ombudsman found problems in our paperwork which cost us a lot to fix, but we were allowed to go back and fix. The WPHS people found problems which needed to be fixed, but told us that our standard was the best of any food place in the shopping mall. The food safety people didn't find problems. Unless the breeches are serious, they are very helpful in allowing things to be fixed).
If you have missed any super payment, an employee has the right to complain to the authorities, which could open yourself to an audit.
You have obligations to providing full information to employees about their pay, which includes the prompt issuing of payslips, and the keeping of records for a period of time, securely and privately. Privacy covers the secure recording of employment information as well as video surveillance. To have private employee information available over a network may be a problem for instance, as may be unsealed payslips. There are many areas where a workplace has the potential to be deemed unsafe. There are fire regulations. You may even leave yourself open to risk if an employee leaves milk in the fridge for too long. Perhaps you need to have a trained first aid person or to have a fully stocked first aid kit- which may not be applicable for a medical type practice. But perhaps your kind of practice requires more stringent than normal standards.
With today's emphasis on workplace bullying and discrimination you may be required to show that you have educated employees in these matters- and that you are aware how to handle any such problems legally.
I guess any employer has a number of actions.
1. Ignore potential problems. Obviously I wouldn't advocate this in a public forum, even if I did think it was a good idea! But There's probably a lot of employers who get away with a lot of things just because nobody has ever checked them. A small workplace may have a low risk of being assessed by any authority, or to have a disgruntled employee complain about problems.
2. Read up on the laws and try to comply. China, in your case, it would seem that this is not a strength- and to keep up with all laws may be a big job.
3. Get a third party. This doesn't have to be a lawyer. There are firms which can do workplace audits, which can cover as many or as few areas as you wish to have checked. It may be a good insurance policy, cutting down your chances of being audited or even sued at a later date.
