BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS / Šturma, Mozetic (eds)

3. Labour Codes Czech, Polish, Romanian, and Slovak labour law is codified. Therefore, the most suitable provisions are contained in the respective national labour codes. In two of the four countries, Poland and Slovakia, the protection of privacy is declared to be a part of fundamental principles that govern labour law in Article 11 of the Slovak Labour Code 16 and Article 11(1) of the Polish Labour Code. 17 Being declared a fundamental principle of labour law stresses its importance in both countries. The Romanian Labour Code 18 protects employee privacy in Section 40 II Lit. i, under which an employer has the duty to ensure the confidentiality of employee data that are private in character. Although the Czech Republic and Romania are bound by the same international agreements like Poland and Slovakia, the legislature did not proclaim employee privacy to be as important. This enabled the Czech Supreme Court to rule repetitively and positively on the covert surveillance of employees, 19 even so, it was inconsistent with Article 316 of the Czech Labour Code, 20 which sets forth rules compatible with those in Polish or Slovak law. In one case, Czech courts decided that the breach of discipline amounted to gross misconduct and, therefore, was so grave as to justify summary dismissal. 21 4. Civil Codes and Public Data Protection Laws Because of human dignity, which is inevitably involved, national civil codes provide a second layer of protection: Article 81 of the Czech Civil Code, 22 Articles 23 and 24 of the Polish Civil Code, 23 Article 71 of the Romanian Civil Code, 24 and Article 11 of the Slovak Civil Code. Regulations contained in the civil codes are, however, considered to be general and their application is superseded by special regulations provided by public laws on data protection: 25 Act No. 101/2000 Collection as amended in the Czech 16 Act No. 311/2001 Collection as amended. 17 Act from 26 June 1974 as amended in Polish Dz.U. 1974 Nr 24 poz. 141. On the history of Article 11(1) of the Polish Labour Code see LISZCZ, T.: Prawo pracy , 5 th Edition, Warszawa: LexisNexis, 2008, p. 82-85. 18 Codul Muncii; published under No. 53/2003 Collection. 19 Decision 16 August 2012, file number 21 Cdo 1771/2011 and decision 7 August 2014, file number 21 Cdo 747/2013. 20 Act No. 262/2006 Collection as amended. 21 Decision 16 August 2012, file number 21 Cdo 1771/2011. 22 Act No. 89/2012 Collection. 23 Act on 23 April 1964, as amended, Dz.U. 1964 Nr 16 poz. 93 24 Codul civil al României, commonly referred to as Noul Cod Civil – the New Civil Code, officially Law No. 287/2009 on the Civil Code, published in the “Official Gazette of Romania”, part I, no. 511 of 24 July 2009. Cf. SABĂU, G.V.: Brief Considerations Regarding the Juridical Protection of Private Life in the Regulations of the New Romanian Civil Code in AGORA International Journal of Juridical Sciences, ISSN 1843-570X, E-ISSN 2067-7677, No. 1 (2014), pp. 66-71. 25 See MÉSZÁROS, P.: Civilnoprávny rozmer ochrany osobních údajov In: Barancova, H. (ed.): Monitoro- vanie zamestnancov a právo na sukromný život , Bratislava 2010, p. 110 or FLOREK, L. (ed.): Kodeks pracy. Komentarz , 5 th Edition, Warszawa: Lex and Wolters Kluwer business 2009, p. 88.

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