Zlatiborski pravnički dani, 01. 01. 2011., S. 79

Златибор 2011 Социјална права и европске интеграције

Ljubinka Kovaéevié, LL.M. Teaching and Research Assistant, University of Belgrade Faculty of Law

COLLECTION AND USE OF PERSONAL DATA AS A LABOUR LAW PROBLEM

Summary

Important legal problems arise in respect of the protection of personal daia of employees and job applicants. Labour law tends to strike the balance between employer's prerogatives and the workers’ recognised right to respect for private life, i.e. to minimise the limitations which employer's data processing activites could possibly pose for privacy and dignity of workers. This aim is linked with the difficulty in knowing how far, for what purpose and under what conditions an employer may collect or use information of personal kind about workers. The main purpose of this article is to analyze basic legal problems connected with data processing activites of employers in the light of relevant international standards (ILO Code of practice on the protection of workers’ personal data; CoE Recommendation No. R /89/ 2 on the protection of personal data used for employment purposes). The first part of article outlines the basic legal framework for protecting the personal data of workers in Serbian, comparative and international labour law. The second part examines the general principles concerning the amount and types of collected data, and the third part discusses procedural requirements concerning protection of workers’ dignity (information and consultation of workers about the collection and use of their personal data, etc). The fourth part discusses protection of sensitive personal data (data related to workers’ health, political opinions, criminal convictions and union membership). The author points out that collection of employees’ personal data is allowed only for the excercise of rights and obligations deriving from the employment relationship. The collection of personal data of job applicants should be restricted to the informations that are necessary for (evaluation of their capacities for) performance of certain jobs. This means that data collected by employer should be directly relevant to the employment of a worker, while their use should be restricted to employment purposes. Also, employers are limited in their collection of data through various forms of workplace control and testing, when data protection, also, falls under the general principles of relevancy, adequacy and proportionality.

Keywords: privacy; employment relationship; workers ‘personal data; sensitive personal data.