Abstract

The article analyses the obligations of employers with respect to employee monitoring as provided for in the General Data Protection Regulation and the Polish Labour Code. The provisions of the Polish Labour Code concerning employee monitoring were adopted under Art. 88 of the GDPR, which permits adoption of special rules to ensure protection of rights and freedoms with respect to processing of employees’ personal data in the employment context. The GDPR and the Labour Code rules on employee monitoring apply concurrently and both provide for certain obligations of employers wishing to introduce employee monitoring. The most important obligations stemming from the GDPR in this respect include: finding a legal basis for employee data processing and performing a legitimate interest assessment, information duties towards employees, and conducting a data protection impact assessment (DPIA). The obligations of employers under the Labour Code are as follows: including information on employee monitoring and its purposes, scope and method in the employee manual (collective agreement or announcement), informing employees about introduction of monitoring beforehand, marking the monitored area or equipment, limiting the purposes of employee monitoring to those explicitly indicated in the Labour Code, implementing employee monitoring in such a way so as not to infringe on employees’ privacy and other personal interests.