Use this url to cite ETD: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12259/36644
Options
Ar darbuotojas turi teisę į privatumą darbo vietoje?
Field of Science
Teisė / Law (S001)
Type of publication
type::text::thesis::master thesis
Title
Ar darbuotojas turi teisę į privatumą darbo vietoje?
Other Title
Does the employee have the right to privacy in the workplace?
Author
Povilaitytė, Greta |
Advisor
Date Issued
2018-06-06
Abstract
XXI amžiuje ištobulėjus technologijų pasauliui, tampant vis labiau skaitmeniniu ir inovatyviu, atsirado daug naujovių žmonių gyvenime. Tokia technologijų pažanga padarė didelę įtaką ir darbo vietos supratimui bei darbuotojo apsaugos užtikrinimui. Darbdavio galimybės stebėti, rinkti ir kaupti įvairaus pobūdžio informaciją apie darbuotojus metai iš metų sulaukė daug priešiškumo bei darbuotojo teisių į privatumą pažeidimų. Taip atsirado pagrindinė problema – konfliktas tarp darbuotojo asmens privatumo ir darbdavio teisėtų verslo interesų. Šiame magistro darbe aptariamos pagrindinės priemonės pažeidžiant darbuotojo privatumą darbo vietoje. Šiuo darbu siekiama išanalizuoti tiek Lietuvos Respublikos, tiek kitų šalių praktiką, kaip kiekvienu atveju pasiekiamas darbuotojo ir darbdavio teisėtų interesų balansas.
Darbe aptariama darbuotojo asmens teisė į privatumą ir darbdavio teisėtų interesų užtikrinimas, teisė kontroliuoti ir stebėti savo darbuotojus. Aprašoma teorija, asmens teisės į privatumą ištakos bei asmens privatumo darbo vietoje ribos. Pristatomos pagrindinės darbuotojo kontrolės ir darbo vietos stebėjimo priemonės, kurios yra naudojamos darbo vietoje. Išskiriami argumentai atliekant teismų praktikos analizę. Taip pat, atliekama Jungtinių Amerikos Valstijų ir Lietuvos Respublikos teisinio reglamentavimo lyginamoji analizė, darbuotojų privatumo aspektu. Nagrinėjant teisinę praktiką ir mokslininkų vertinimus, bus atliekamas vertinimų apibendrinimas, kuriame bus aptarti rezultatai, teisinio reglamentavimo skirtumai. Atlikti tyrimai ir analizės parodė, kad iškelta hipotezė pasitvirtina - darbuotojas turi teisę į privatumą darbo vietoje, o teisinis reglamentavimas ir įmonės vidaus taisyklės privalo užtikrinti šias teises. Darytina išvada, kad asmens privatumas vis dažniau pažeidžiamas darbo aplinkoje, naudojant vaizdo ir garso įrašymo priemones, renkant asmens duomenis, naudojantis socialiniais tinklais bei diegiant įvairią programinę sekimo įrangą į darbo funkcijoms atlikti skirtas priemones. Atlikus Teisės aktų ir teisinės praktikos analizes buvo prieita prie išvadų, kad darbdaviai privalo įspėti darbuotojus apie vykdomą stebėsena darbo vietoje, darbuotojus supažindinti raštiškai, pateikiant visas priežastis, kodėl vyksta stebėjimas. Taip pat išsiaiškinta, kad teismai, kurdami precedentus dažnai palaiko tik vieną pusę, taip nesukurdami balanso tarp darbuotojo ir darbdavio teisėtų interesų. Palyginus JAV ir Lietuvos reglamentavimą, asmens privatumo aspektu išsiaiškinta, kad JAV teisinėje sistemoje taikomi įstatymai nėra standartizuoti ir aiškūs, turi gana daug spragų ir išimčių, kuriomis dažnai pasinaudoja darbdaviai laimėti teismus prieš darbuotojus, taip pat daugeliu nuomonių JAV standartai yra žemesni nei Lietuvoje.
Šios problemos sprendimui yra būtinas darbuotojo asmens apsaugos ir darbdavio teisėtų verslo interesų balanso suderinimas bei griežtos darbo vidaus taisyklės, kuriose būtų aiškiai išdėstoma asmens privatumo politika, bei darbuotojo stebėjimo ir kontrolės priemonės.
Darbe aptariama darbuotojo asmens teisė į privatumą ir darbdavio teisėtų interesų užtikrinimas, teisė kontroliuoti ir stebėti savo darbuotojus. Aprašoma teorija, asmens teisės į privatumą ištakos bei asmens privatumo darbo vietoje ribos. Pristatomos pagrindinės darbuotojo kontrolės ir darbo vietos stebėjimo priemonės, kurios yra naudojamos darbo vietoje. Išskiriami argumentai atliekant teismų praktikos analizę. Taip pat, atliekama Jungtinių Amerikos Valstijų ir Lietuvos Respublikos teisinio reglamentavimo lyginamoji analizė, darbuotojų privatumo aspektu. Nagrinėjant teisinę praktiką ir mokslininkų vertinimus, bus atliekamas vertinimų apibendrinimas, kuriame bus aptarti rezultatai, teisinio reglamentavimo skirtumai. Atlikti tyrimai ir analizės parodė, kad iškelta hipotezė pasitvirtina - darbuotojas turi teisę į privatumą darbo vietoje, o teisinis reglamentavimas ir įmonės vidaus taisyklės privalo užtikrinti šias teises. Darytina išvada, kad asmens privatumas vis dažniau pažeidžiamas darbo aplinkoje, naudojant vaizdo ir garso įrašymo priemones, renkant asmens duomenis, naudojantis socialiniais tinklais bei diegiant įvairią programinę sekimo įrangą į darbo funkcijoms atlikti skirtas priemones. Atlikus Teisės aktų ir teisinės praktikos analizes buvo prieita prie išvadų, kad darbdaviai privalo įspėti darbuotojus apie vykdomą stebėsena darbo vietoje, darbuotojus supažindinti raštiškai, pateikiant visas priežastis, kodėl vyksta stebėjimas. Taip pat išsiaiškinta, kad teismai, kurdami precedentus dažnai palaiko tik vieną pusę, taip nesukurdami balanso tarp darbuotojo ir darbdavio teisėtų interesų. Palyginus JAV ir Lietuvos reglamentavimą, asmens privatumo aspektu išsiaiškinta, kad JAV teisinėje sistemoje taikomi įstatymai nėra standartizuoti ir aiškūs, turi gana daug spragų ir išimčių, kuriomis dažnai pasinaudoja darbdaviai laimėti teismus prieš darbuotojus, taip pat daugeliu nuomonių JAV standartai yra žemesni nei Lietuvoje.
Šios problemos sprendimui yra būtinas darbuotojo asmens apsaugos ir darbdavio teisėtų verslo interesų balanso suderinimas bei griežtos darbo vidaus taisyklės, kuriose būtų aiškiai išdėstoma asmens privatumo politika, bei darbuotojo stebėjimo ir kontrolės priemonės.
In the 21st century, as technologies have improved and the world becomes more and more digital and innovative, many innovations have come to people‘s lives. Such an improvement of technologies has highly influenced the way people understand a workplace and employee security assurance. The emergence of such innovative technologies has accelerated not only work processes and efficiency of companies, but also the desire of employers to control employees. Over the years, possibilities for employers to monitor, collect and store various information about employees were evaluated negatively, as it violated employee‘s right to privacy. In this way, the main problem has arisen – a conflict between employee‘s privacy and employer‘s legitimate business interests. This master thesis discusses the main measures used to violate employee‘s privacy in a workplace. The goal of this thesis is to analyse how the balance of employee‘s and employer‘s legitimate interests are achieved in the Republic of Lithuania and other countries.
The master thesis aims at answering the question whether an employee has a right to privacy in a workplace. The central problem of this thesis – employee‘s privacy and employer‘s desire to control and monitor everything, which is considered to be the main labor law issue in the aspect of privacy. An employee is not just a puppet of employer – every person also has a personal life. It is completely understandable, that an employee wants to have a right to privacy and be protected from interfering into one‘s personal life, collecting information about one‘s personal life, compromising views and other – besides professional activity, an employee also exists as by nature free personality. Employer‘s right to ensure an appropriate performance of work is understood as seeking to control employees in a workplace in order to achieve more efficient and effective work results, as well as achieving a higher employee integrity and preventing many threats, which can be caused by employees‘ using company‘s or institution‘s information systems, not for work purposes.
The relevance of the topic: as information technologies are getting more and more improved and new and more advanced electronic innovations emerge, the threat to every person‘s privacy security increases. In a similar manner, the need for society to control and follow everything increases, and monitoring of a workplace is not an exception. Today, every person, working in a public as well as private sector, is being monitored and one‘s privacy is being restricted in a workplace. This is the reason why with the rapid development of advanced electronic innovations there were protecting the fundamental person‘s right to privacy. It is why this issue has been relevant for a while now: in order to protect personal data and privacy, several legal acts have been released. For example, one of the most important is EU Directive released in 1995 on the protection of people‘s protection processing personal data and its free movement, also directive in 2002 regarding the processing of personal data and privacy in the electronic communications sector. The above-mentioned directives are one of the main because they are legally compulsory to all Member States and because they contain a detailed description of the regulatory mechanism. Despite the fact, that this topic is relevant for rather long time and there are legal acts to solve this problem, along with the changing society and new technologies used to monitor, follow and control people, one faces the same problem ever since. In addition to that, there are constantly emerging legal gaps regarding the balance of employee‘s and employer‘s interests, which can be seen within releasing of new legal acts. For instance, on the 1st of July 2017 the first positive legal act – Labour Code of the Republic of Lithuania – was released. In this Code, one could find significant innovations regarding work relations and protection of employee‘s right to privacy.
Objectives:
1. To introduce the concept of person‘s right to privacy and its boundaries.
2. To describe person‘s right to privacy in a workplace monitoring and controlling means.
3. To find out the practice of the Lithuanian courts regarding one‘s right to privacy in a workplace and to describe the change in Lithuania‘s legal framework regarding this issue.
4. To analyse the law of the USA and European countries regarding person‘s right to privacy in a workplace.
To answer the question raised in this thesis by comparing the practice and the results of legal doctrine analysis in Lithuania, USA, and European countries.
Methods of research: descriptive, comparative, systemic, linguistic and logical analysis of case-law and legal acts.
This master thesis consists of two parts, which discuss employee‘s personal right to privacy and ensuring employer‘s legal interests as well as the right to control and monitor employees. The first part overviews theory, the origins of person‘s right to privacy, describes the boundaries of employee‘s privacy in a workplace. The second part introduces the main means of employee‘s control and workplace monitoring, which are used in a workplace. In this part, arguments of carrying out an analysis of case-law are being distinguished. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of legal framework in the United States of America and the Republic of Lithuania regarding the privacy of employees is being performed.
While examining the case-law and the evaluations of scientists, the summary of evaluations, in which the results and the differences of legal framework will be discussed, is going to be provided.
Research and analysis have shown, that the proposed hypothesis confirms itself: an employee has a right to privacy in a workplace and legal framework, as well as company‘s internal rules, must ensure these rights. It can be concluded, that person‘s privacy in a workplace is violated more and more often by using video and audio recording devices, by collecting personal data from social media or installing various tracking software to the means of work. The analysis of legal acts and legal practice has concluded, that employers are obliged to warn employees about ongoing workplace monitoring, employees have to be introduced to it in a written form, enumerating all the reasons why monitoring is taking place. It was also found, that while creating precedents courts often support only one side, thus not creating the balance between employee‘s and employer‘s legal interests. Having compared legal framework regarding person‘s privacy of the USA and the Republic of Lithuania, it was determined, that the laws in the legal system of the USA are not standardized and clear, as they have many gaps and exceptions, which often are used by employers in order to win trials against employees. In many opinions, the standards in the USA are lower than those in Lithuania.
To solve this problem, it is necessary to harmonize the balance employee‘s personal security and employer‘s legal business interests. It is also essential to have strict internal rules of work, which should clearly outline the politics of personal privacy as well as means of employee's monitoring and control.
The master thesis aims at answering the question whether an employee has a right to privacy in a workplace. The central problem of this thesis – employee‘s privacy and employer‘s desire to control and monitor everything, which is considered to be the main labor law issue in the aspect of privacy. An employee is not just a puppet of employer – every person also has a personal life. It is completely understandable, that an employee wants to have a right to privacy and be protected from interfering into one‘s personal life, collecting information about one‘s personal life, compromising views and other – besides professional activity, an employee also exists as by nature free personality. Employer‘s right to ensure an appropriate performance of work is understood as seeking to control employees in a workplace in order to achieve more efficient and effective work results, as well as achieving a higher employee integrity and preventing many threats, which can be caused by employees‘ using company‘s or institution‘s information systems, not for work purposes.
The relevance of the topic: as information technologies are getting more and more improved and new and more advanced electronic innovations emerge, the threat to every person‘s privacy security increases. In a similar manner, the need for society to control and follow everything increases, and monitoring of a workplace is not an exception. Today, every person, working in a public as well as private sector, is being monitored and one‘s privacy is being restricted in a workplace. This is the reason why with the rapid development of advanced electronic innovations there were protecting the fundamental person‘s right to privacy. It is why this issue has been relevant for a while now: in order to protect personal data and privacy, several legal acts have been released. For example, one of the most important is EU Directive released in 1995 on the protection of people‘s protection processing personal data and its free movement, also directive in 2002 regarding the processing of personal data and privacy in the electronic communications sector. The above-mentioned directives are one of the main because they are legally compulsory to all Member States and because they contain a detailed description of the regulatory mechanism. Despite the fact, that this topic is relevant for rather long time and there are legal acts to solve this problem, along with the changing society and new technologies used to monitor, follow and control people, one faces the same problem ever since. In addition to that, there are constantly emerging legal gaps regarding the balance of employee‘s and employer‘s interests, which can be seen within releasing of new legal acts. For instance, on the 1st of July 2017 the first positive legal act – Labour Code of the Republic of Lithuania – was released. In this Code, one could find significant innovations regarding work relations and protection of employee‘s right to privacy.
Objectives:
1. To introduce the concept of person‘s right to privacy and its boundaries.
2. To describe person‘s right to privacy in a workplace monitoring and controlling means.
3. To find out the practice of the Lithuanian courts regarding one‘s right to privacy in a workplace and to describe the change in Lithuania‘s legal framework regarding this issue.
4. To analyse the law of the USA and European countries regarding person‘s right to privacy in a workplace.
To answer the question raised in this thesis by comparing the practice and the results of legal doctrine analysis in Lithuania, USA, and European countries.
Methods of research: descriptive, comparative, systemic, linguistic and logical analysis of case-law and legal acts.
This master thesis consists of two parts, which discuss employee‘s personal right to privacy and ensuring employer‘s legal interests as well as the right to control and monitor employees. The first part overviews theory, the origins of person‘s right to privacy, describes the boundaries of employee‘s privacy in a workplace. The second part introduces the main means of employee‘s control and workplace monitoring, which are used in a workplace. In this part, arguments of carrying out an analysis of case-law are being distinguished. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of legal framework in the United States of America and the Republic of Lithuania regarding the privacy of employees is being performed.
While examining the case-law and the evaluations of scientists, the summary of evaluations, in which the results and the differences of legal framework will be discussed, is going to be provided.
Research and analysis have shown, that the proposed hypothesis confirms itself: an employee has a right to privacy in a workplace and legal framework, as well as company‘s internal rules, must ensure these rights. It can be concluded, that person‘s privacy in a workplace is violated more and more often by using video and audio recording devices, by collecting personal data from social media or installing various tracking software to the means of work. The analysis of legal acts and legal practice has concluded, that employers are obliged to warn employees about ongoing workplace monitoring, employees have to be introduced to it in a written form, enumerating all the reasons why monitoring is taking place. It was also found, that while creating precedents courts often support only one side, thus not creating the balance between employee‘s and employer‘s legal interests. Having compared legal framework regarding person‘s privacy of the USA and the Republic of Lithuania, it was determined, that the laws in the legal system of the USA are not standardized and clear, as they have many gaps and exceptions, which often are used by employers in order to win trials against employees. In many opinions, the standards in the USA are lower than those in Lithuania.
To solve this problem, it is necessary to harmonize the balance employee‘s personal security and employer‘s legal business interests. It is also essential to have strict internal rules of work, which should clearly outline the politics of personal privacy as well as means of employee's monitoring and control.
Language
Lietuvių / Lithuanian (lt)
Defended
Taip / Yes
Access Rights
Atviroji prieiga / Open Access