The nature of modern employment relationships requires workers to use modern information technology and it is unreasonable to expect that workers would not occasionally use this technology for private purposes. However, the legal problem arising is that different legitimate interests collide, namely, the employer's interest to monitor employee deriving from the nature of employment relationship as well as from his/her property rights on one hand, and the employee's right to privacy in the workplace on the other hand. In order to resolve this dilemma, a fair balance between competing interests must be struck in each case. The master thesis examines legal rules, principles, case law and other factors that must be considered when seeking a fair balance. Due to the absence of a general legislation that would comprehensively regulate the area of communication privacy in the workplace, in assessing the justification of employee monitoring, we must take into account the relevant provisions of general legal instruments, for example, Article 37 of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Moreover, the ECtHR plays a crucial role in the development of communication privacy in the workplace by setting new, higher standards of protection. In line with ECtHR case law, the reasonable expectation of privacy test as well as all the factors set out in the case of Bărbulescu v. Romania should be taken into account when monitoring the employees. By interfering with the employee's communications, the employer inevitably obtains some of his/her personal information; therefore, the thesis also addresses information privacy. The final part of the thesis is intended to present relevant opinions of the Information Commissioner and to find answers to some topical questions.
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