THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY IN LABOR RELATIONS: THEORETICAL PROBLEMS OF LEGAL REGULATION

Abstract

Introduction: the article is devoted to research on the right to privacy in labor relations. Purpose: to analyze the current regulation of the right to privacy in Russian labor law, to explore the approaches that have developed in the practice of the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter – ECtHR) and in the doctrine, to propose directions for improving labor legislation in terms of the right to privacy. Methods: general, general scientific methods; special scientific methods (system-structural, formal-legal, comparative-legal).Results: the right to privacy (to respect for private and family life, home, and correspondence) is generally recognized and is contained both in international acts and in regional (interregional, subregional) conventions and declarations. In the absence of definitions of private life and privacy in international documents and Russian legislation, of particular importance is how these concepts are interpreted by national and international courts. In contrast to the definitions of private life and privacy given by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the ECtHR considers professional activity to be part of private life since it allows people to build communication with the outside world. Analysis of the ECtHR decisions on the complaints of employees about the violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights reveals the most typical violations of the right to respect for private and family life in the workplace in the practice of the ECtHR, and also indicates the increasing urgency of this issue. Despite Russia's withdrawal from the Council of Europe, it is advisable to take into account the legal positions of the ECtHR, along with its legal doctrine, when preparing proposals for amending and supplementing labor legislation. Noting the insufficiency of the current labor law regulation with regard to privacy, the paper explores the theoretical aspects of personal non-property labor rights and the right to privacy in labor relations, outlines the possible directions for improving labor legislation. Conclusions: the author notes development of the employee’s right to privacy, supplemented with the right to disconnect; it is expedient to include the right to privacy in the list of basic rights of employees in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, while establishing the corresponding obligation of the employer. Since the right to privacy is realized not only in labor relations but also in some other, directly related, legal relations, it is proposed, taking into account the terminology of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, to supplement the list of basic principles provided in Article 2 of the Labor Code with the principle of ensuring privacy in labor and other directly associated relations.