NEWS
Travel Weekly has teamed up with leading industry employment lawyer Ami Naru for a regular column offering answers to readers’ legal questions on employment/HR matters. Ami will cover the latest employment issues facing the industry and respond to questions and dilemmas posed by you. In this column, Ami answers a reader’s questions about using an employee’s photograph in marketing materials.
My company has recently engaged in a recruitment drive and, as part of this, we wanted to show how fantastic it is to work here. Having
Ami Naru PARTNER, TRAVLAW
There’s no snap answer to using photos of your staff in marketing
spent a lot of money on an office refurbishment to draw people back into the workplace, we had some professional photos taken of colleagues at work. However, one employee has objected to her photograph being used for marketing purposes. Where do we stand?
A: It is wonderful to hear you are on a recruitment drive and that business is looking good. It’s also great to see that you have taken action to entice staff away from working at home by welcoming them with a brand-new shiny office. Turning to the question of being
a photo of this employee. Of course, you could use the other photos of those employees who consent to their photos being used in such a way. It is also worth mentioning that a
consideration of the data protection implications of publishing photos of employees may be particularly relevant to you also. Employees have rights including the right to
LEGAL
photographed in the course of employment and these photographs then being used in the wider public domain, there will need to be consideration of whether the employee had an expectation of privacy. An employee who is filmed or photographed could potentially argue that their right under Article 8 the European Convention on Human Rights (right to respect for their private and family life) would be infringed by the taking and publication of the photographs or film. It will be important to establish the terms on
which the employee has been employed regarding photographing or filming of them, in particular the extent to which they gave their informed consent to the uses you as the employer would make of the photograph, and the scope of consent given. If no such consent has been obtained from the employee, then you should not proceed to publish
Q&A
object and the right of erasure. As a controller of data, you must bear this in mind when collecting personal data. You may want to consider the employee perspective or choice on whether to be captured in a photo or film in such a way. In advance of taking the photos, it would have been good practice to consider what employees would reasonably expect and, generally, the Information Commissioners Office guidance is to avoid any unnecessary intrusion into their privacy or breach of employee rights. Another issue you may wish
to consider is pseudonymisation (blurring or masking the data) if required, but I appreciate this will lose the desired effect of enticing
employees. Finally, do consider any data security aspects of the photos and footage – for example, confidential information accidently being visible. On a wider note, you should consider
whether there are any copyrighted works in what is being photographed (for example, a painting or artwork) in respect of which consent from the owner of the material might be required. To be protected by copyright in the UK, a work must qualify for copyright
protection and its term must not have expired. OThe guidance in this article is not a substitute for formal legal advice.
Ami Naru is partner and head of employment at leading travel law firm Travlaw Legal Services and has advised the
industry on employment law for 25 years. Since qualifying as a solicitor in 2000, she has focused on building a practice dedicated to serving the industry and works with bodies including Abta, Aito and the Business Travel Association.
Q ASK AMI A QUESTION: If you have any questions relating to employment law, or other areas of HR, that you would like to put to Ami, email
robin.murray@
travelweekly.co.uk with the subject: Question for Ami
travelweekly.co.uk
27 MARCH 2025
11
PICTURES: David Robertson; Shutterstock/Lokal Vektor
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