Legal basis for the use of digital technologies for monitoring remote workers in the digital economy

Abstract

The article discusses the legal basis for the use of digital technologies in labor relations. Digital technologies can be used both in the performance of work, for example, the work of remote workers, and in the control of employees. When monitoring employees, including remote workers, the use of digital technologies and public information and telecommunications networks by the employer comes first. Moreover, the use of digital technologies by the employer when monitoring remote workers is the only means of control. The author examines the legal regulation of the implementation of such means of control over employees as video surveillance, an automated system for monitoring and recording working hours, monitoring sites that an employee visited from his office computer during working hours, checking correspondence in corporate e-mail, listening to telephone conversations, using billing programs, and provides examples from court practice. The author identifies the defects of legal regulation in these areas and suggests ways to improve the legislation.