Protection of privacy in labor relations: the Italian case within the European dimension

The essay examines the legal dimension of a worker’s privacy and employers’ powers of control from the perspective of the Italian, European and European Community (EC) Law systems. The Authors review the question of whether such surveillance is lawful. The central focus of the article is on the analysis of the complex regulatory system of privacy protection from the European perspective, highlighting the difference between the protection of privacy of an “ordinary citizen” and specific protection recognized for workers with respect to the employer’s powers of control. The Italian perspective represents an interesting case study in which to check these issues. The first part of the article is devoted to the reconstruction of the regulatory system as a whole. In the second part the Authors look at application of the results arrived at in the first part with reference to the problem of the limits of control over electronic mail and internet.