Video Surveillance in the Workplace Under the Croatian Act on Implementation of the General Data Protection

Abstract

The authors critically evaluate the legislation and practice in Croatia on video surveillance in the workplace, focusing in particular on the recently adopted GDPR Implementation Act. This act prescribes rules on the processing of personal data through video surveillance systems, as well as its own maximum administrative fines for violations of some of those rules. Additionally to the new rules on video surveillance of work premises, the authors examine the new general rules on data processing by video surveillance and the related rules on administrative fines, as well as the earlier acts on which the GDPR Implementation Act relies. The goal of this research is to establish if the new rules provide the necessary clarity and legal certainty in relation to existing legislation and practice, as well as compatibility thereof with the GDPR. With the disclaimer that the analysis of the legal bases for processing workers’ personal data and of corresponding case law is excluded from the scope of this paper, the authors also briefly point to GDPR rules which the employers, human resources personnel and legal professionals ought to consider when assessing legal compliance of workplace video monitoring. Concluding critical remarks will also deliver de lege ferenda proposals towards amendment of certain examined rules of the GDPR Implementation Act so as to ensure greater legal clarity and legal certainty as well as consistency with the GDPR.