earticle

영어

The electronic labour surveillance institutionalized, the workers’ stress in the workplace are deepening by degrees. However, there are not the legislation regulating it. The current Personal Information Protection Act(PIPA) may be applied in the labour relation, but it reaches the limit because of ignoring the workers’ subordination to the employers. The best way to overcome the limitations is to enact the labour surveillance chapter in the PIPA. In order to do that, we need to look into the characteristics of the electronic labour surveillance and its effect on the worker’s spirit and body, then, to examine the limitations of current legislations in real application cases. Electronic labour surveillance, its aim and means are suppressed under a confident manner, and the worker’s personal data collected are processed beyond time and space. The Employer can collect and process the worker’s data for the other purpose, and create new personal information by using existing data. Consequently, in experiencing the employer’s monitoring, the workers are suffering from pressure of surveillance, and it incurs the workers’ self-censorship and willing obedience. Therefore, the workers’ subordination to the employers is intensified deeply. There are a few shortcomings in the data protection legislations regulating on the electronic surveillance devices. the PIPA is applied to the management of image information processing equipment such as a CCTV, but the PIPA regulates the monitoring in the public space, and is not applied in the closed workplace. So, in the closed workplace, following the PIPA’s general rules, the employer can surveil the workers by obtaining their consents or improving his obvious and legitimate interests. When the employer inspects the contents of worker’s email and messenger, the Protection of Communications Secrets Act is applied, but it restricts the meaning of wiretapping to acquiring and recording the information with their transmission and reception, so the reading the contents is not regulated. If the employers read the private contents of workers in their computers, the applied law is not obvious. In the electronic communications system, the Act on Promotion of Utilization of Information and Communications Network can be applied, or otherwise, the infringement on secrecy in the Criminal Law or PIPA shall be applied. The personal location information is regulated on the Act on the Protection, Use, Etc., of Location Information. The personal location information is different from the personal information. It occurs to invasion on the person’s safety, and is created be the third person. To enact the new legislation on the electronic labour surveillance, the EU suggests the 7 principles in the working document on the surveillance of electronic communications in the workplace. They are Necessity, Finality, Transparency, Legitimacy, Proportionality, Accuracy and Retention of Data, and Security. As the principle of interpretation, the principle of closeness to the task shall be applied to the article 15 (1) 6. of the PIPA. According to the 15 (1) 6. of the PIPA, the employer who improves his obvious and legitimate can collect and process the workers’ personal information, but 15 (1) 6. of the PIPA also regulates that such information is substantially relevant to the employer’s interest. That relevance shall be interpreted as the closeness to the task which the worker performs. As well, in considering to the invasiveness of the electronic surveillance to the worker’s mentality and body, the principle subsidiary, which means the employer must choose the least harmful way in the surveillance to the workers, shall be added to the principle of the protection of the worker’s information.