The report is from the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO), the on-line industrial relations monitoring service of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. This is an EU advisory organisation, and its recommendations influence the direction taken by the European Commission.
While the European Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and national data protection legislation clearly spell out the privacy rights of the individual, the rules and regulations governing privacy at the workplace are based on a confusing web of guidelines and individual agreements at company level, often compromising either the individual worker's or the employer's rights.
Various EU Directives deal with the question of data protection. The 1995 Data Protection Directive imposes general rights and obligations in connection with data protection. The 2002 Directive on privacy and electronic communications deals with the more specific problems created by the new technologies. But the Commission is concerned that the question of data protection in the workplace has still not been addressed properly.
These issues are being addressed piecemeal by individual countries and by individual privacy watchdogs. In June this year, for example, the British Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, published the third part of the Employment Practices Data Protection Code, "Monitoring at Work". The code provides guidance for employers on monitoring employees' internet and e-mail use. At the time he said:
"Monitoring in the workplace can be intrusive, whether examining e-mails, recording phone calls or installing CCTV cameras. Employees are entitled to expect that their personal lives remain private and they have a degree of privacy in the work environment."
The problems of conflicting interests in the employment relationship have intensified in recent years, given the increased use of ICT in the workplace and at all stages in a business's activities. The balancing of these rights is difficult - and one that the report sees as best regulated at the EU level.
The Commission has already completed the second stage of a consultation process on a proposed new Directive on the protection of worker's personal data – and received a sound rejection for the proposal from the EU "social partners" (organisations such as trade unions and employers' federations). Nevertheless, the Commission is now planning a draft Directive, likely to be ready in 2004 or 2005.
There is an article on workplace monitoring to explain what an employer can and cannot do, the results of a recent monitoring survey conducted among users of OUT-LAW.COM and the Workplacelaw Network, and an exclusive with Information Commissioner Richard Thomas, in the Issue 8 of OUT-LAW Magazine, out next week.