ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author treats the employee’s right to privacy resulting from Art. 8 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms adopted by the Council of Europe. The author analyses the concept of the right to privacy, which is not defined by international law, though in academia and jurisprudence there is still a discussion on the scope of this concept.
The author argues that the right to privacy in accordance with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights refers to professional and business life of a person, in particular to labour relations. This means that it can be infringed by the employer in many areas that are mentioned in the text. Potential violation of the right to privacy by the employer is particularly possible using modern technologies, through activities such as video monitoring, monitoring and control of telephone conversations, control of e-mails and computer content.
The chapter evaluates seven judgments of the Court, including the latest ones in 2017 and 2018, in which the subject of the dispute was violation of the employee’s right to privacy and the confidentiality of correspondence in the situation when the employer uses modern technologies. The author suggests from the Court’s judgments standards of protection of the employee’s right to privacy, which should be respected both by member states when enacting laws and by employers.
