Protection of Employees' Personal Information and Privacy

Bulletin of Comparative Labour Relations Series Volume 88

This collection of essays an outcome of the 12th Comparative Labour Law Seminar (Tokyo Seminar) hosted by the Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training presents detailed country reports on the status of employee privacy law in Australia, China, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Spain, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The papers were presented by distinguished labour law scholars, and are reproduced here with some revisions to reflect the lively discussions that took place at the meeting. For each country, the topics examined include the following:

• default rules regarding employees personal information and privacy;
• regulatory schemes and available remedies against violation;
• what personal information an employer is entitled to obtain;
• ways of striking a balance between employers legitimate interests and employees' privacy;
• safeguards designed to secure non-coercive employee consent;
• drug and alcohol testing;
• surveillance of employees off-duty conduct;
• disclosure of a disciplined employees name or other work-related information;
• employees right to access personal information retained by the employer;
• information used to care for employees health and safety and to consider family situations; and
• prior employers sharing of personal information with a prospective new employer.

In this relatively new area of labour and employment law, in which tools are still developing as new problems emerge in real workplaces, the books overall comparative viewpoint is especially valuable. Scholars and practitioners alike will appreciate the insight gained into how specific national trends exhibit overlap and difference from a global perspective