Prospect has called for tougher rules around the use of remote monitoring software by employers, after a surge in the technology's use during the pandemic.

A UK trade union is calling for the introduction of measures to protect employees from "intrusive monitoring" after polling suggested that one in three UK workers are being monitored by their employer -- including in their own homes.

Prospect, a 150,000-member trade union for professionals working in technology, engineering, management, civil service and various other industries, said it was concerned that the increase in organizations using surveillance technologies to monitor workers was going unchecked and taking place without the consent of employees.

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According to data from a poll of more than 2,400 UK workers conducted by Opinium, 32% are now being monitored in some form by their employers -- up from 24% in April 2021.

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The use of camera technology to surveil people working from home has also doubled, the data suggested: 13% of home workers are currently being monitored by cameras compared to 5% six months ago.

Prospect said monitoring was particularly likely to affect workers in sectors with "higher levels of remote working, larger proportions of younger workers, and low levels of trade union membership" -- which included tech workers.

Younger workers are significantly more likely to be surveilled than older colleagues, the polling indicated: nearly half (48%) of respondents aged 18-34 said they were monitored at work, including 20% who reported having their activity tracked through a camera.

Chi Onwurah, shadow digital minister of the UK's Labour Party, called the findings "deeply worrying" and called for more robust laws to protect the privacy of employees, particularly those who worked from home.

"New technology allows employers to have a constant window into their employees' homes, and the use of the technology is largely unregulated by government," said Onwurah.

"We think that we need to upgrade the law to protect the privacy of workers and set reasonable limits on the use of this snooping technology, and the public overwhelmingly agree with us."

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The overnight introduction of remote working in early 2020 created both technical and managerial challenges for businesses, who suddenly found themselves having to effectively coordinate teams from a distance.

As some companies looked to technical solutions to help them maintain productivity, remote monitoring services -which offer a variety of software-based tools allowing administrators to track employees' online activity