Defensive controls and protection of the worker's data: the new point of the Supreme Court

Abstract

This essay analyzes one of the latest and most important decisions of the Italian Supreme Court on workplace controls. The judgment makes it possible to overcome the doubts that still exist on the possibility for the employer to use the information collected through new means for exercising remote control over the worker for disciplinary purposes. In fact, technological progress ensures to use very invasive tools for the worker’s privacy, capable of carrying out an obscure control, where it is difficult to distinguish between information on work activity and information on the employee’s personal life. An example is precisely the one on which the sentence of the Supreme Court focuses: the control of data on the worker’s internet browsing, carried out on the computer made available by the company. In the essay, the authors focus on the compatibility of such checks with the guarantees provided for by art. 4 of the law n. 300 of 1970, adopting an approach focused on protecting the dignity and privacy of the worker.

Keywords

• employer’s monitoring powers
• privacy
• employee’s dignity
• new technologies
• working tools