Data protection within labour relations

Data Protection within Labour Relations SUMMARY Personal data protection is an inseparable part of one of the most important human rights: the right to inviolability of private life. Employee as a subject of data also has a right to private life and expects it to remain inviolate. Under the conditions of a democratic state it is important to determine the balance between the rights of a person and interests incompatible with them, arising from persons who have legal basis for managing personal data of the employees. The goal set by the Criteria for Legitimate Personal Data Processing is to defend the person’s right to inviolability of his private life and promote high standards of personal data protection. The relations between an employee and an employer, which have formed during the employment process, are based on mutual trust and collaboration, therefore, the present research addresses the following issues: are the principles of data management implemented properly by the employer as a data manager; are the rights or rightful interests of the employee, as a subject of data, inviolate. The topic of the thesis “Data protection within labor relations” is rather broad, therefore, the aim of the present thesis is to analyse the subject, understanding of data protection in bipartite (individual) employment relations, its legal regulations and the principles of employee’s personal data managing set out in them, to identify the main issues of regulation related with the guarantee of data protection. The thesis will mainly focus on the aspect of legal protection of data of the parties involved in employment relations. The main aim of the present thesis is to conduct analysis of the legislation of the Republic of Lithuania as well as international legislation regulating data protection, to distinguish the essential issues of data protection prevailing in the Republic of Lithuania between the contractual parties, to provide possible solutions to problems and conclusions by discussing and evaluating. In order to reach the aforementioned aim, the thesis revealed the right of an employee, as a subject of personal data, to the protection of personal data and its limits; identified the issues in legal regulation of employee’s personal data protection, related to managing personal employees’ data; distinguishes the main duties of the employer in implementing the employee’s right to personal data protection, evaluated the means for defending the rights of data subject and the responsibility for the violations of data protection in implementing personal data protection. In order to reveal the chosen topic properly and to achieve the aim, as well as to formulate the conclusions, the following methods have been used: logical, comparative, document analysis, summarizing and questionnaire-based survey. A sociological research (conducted at the end of 2015) helped to prove the hypothesis of the thesis. According to the legislation on data protection applicable in the Republic of Lithuania, the employer, as a data manager, fails to implement his duties in managing personal data of the employees, and thus violates the rights and rightful interests of the employees. Legal regulations of employee’s personal data protection of the Republic of Lithuania, guarantee a minimum level of personal data protection. It is necessary to improve the Criteria for Legitimate Personal Data Processing, in order to protect not only the rights of the employees, but also the right to personal data protection. With regards to the provisions of Labour Code project, the parties involved in employment relations are going to be better protected