Businesses could be inadvertently infringing staff privacy rights introduced this week under the Human Rights Act (HRA).

Companies have been urged to check whether they have the necessary clauses in staff contracts and handbooks to ensure they can intercept email without breaking the law.

The UK government has attempted to comply with the HRA through its Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act, the first part of which came into effect last week. This was designed to provide a legal basis for government surveillance of telephone and internet communication.

Firms that monitor employees' use of email, the internet or phones as part of their business practice, and do not tell employees or have not obtained employee consent to do so, can in most cases be sued under the HRA.

Dai Davis, an IT lawyer with Nabarro Nathanson, told vnunet.com:"I would recommend every business to say quite clearly in their staff manual that they are monitoring private emails."

He added that they should also provide staff with the ability to send and receive private emails that don't use the company network, such as web-based email systems.

Other experts said firms could get consent to monitor communications by asking staff to sign updated handbooks which state an employer's right to intercept emails.

Last month, the government wrote to all public authorities detailing what procedures they should follow to avoid the risk of being sued in the period from this week until the relevant clause of the RIP Act comes into force later this month.