Use Of Technologies And Respect For Privacy At The Workplace

EU and International Background

In Europe, the use of new information and communication technologies ( ICT) at the workplace has spread rapidly in recent years. This raises numerous issues for employers, employees and their representatives and has been the subject of laborious discussions especially in terms of the link between workers' privacy and employers' need to control and monitor the use of ICT.

It is also pertinent to point out that there is no specific and uniform European Legislation on this topic. In fact, there are currently only two EU Directives. One of these Directives (Directive 95/46/EC) concerns the protection of individuals with regards to the processing of personal data and the free movement of such a data, while the other (Directive 2002/58/EC which amends Directive 97/66/EC), involves the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector. However, as mentioned-above, these EU Directives do not