On the Issue of Compliance with the Legislation on Personal Data by the Employer During Video Recording and Psychophysiological Study of Workers on the Polygraph

Abstract

The article is devoted to the issues of compliance by the employer with the legislation of the Russian Federation on the collection of personal data of an employee through technical means of control over him and his workplace, as well as the fact and limits of interference in his private life. In this case, the need for the legitimacy of ensuring the rights and obligations of the parties to labor relations and the consistency of their interests is indicated. The authors note that the workplace is under the control of the employer, who is free to choose the means of control over the employee. The article discusses such means of control as video surveillance of employees and their testing on a polygraph (lie detector). An analysis of the current labor and other legislation of the Russian Federation, which regulates these legal relations of participants in the labor process, as well as the current judicial practice, which is ambiguous, has been undertaken. It is concluded that video surveillance and video recording of the workplace, subject to a number of conditions specified in the article, do not aim to interfere with the private life of the employee, do not violate the rules on the protection of personal data, since they are aimed at ensuring the safety of employees, their control, the safety of property on the territory of the employer, fixing and proving non-fulfillment by the employee of his labor duties. The article formulates a number of requirements, the observance of which will ensure the legality of video monitoring and the inadmissibility of violating the rights and freedoms of employees. When testing an employee on a polygraph, taking into account the provisions of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, a polygraph examiner acting in the interests of the employer should also comply with the requirements of legislation on personal data. Compliance by the employer with certain conditions for the participation of an employee in a psychophysiological study using a polygraph, including bringing to the attention of the employee the subject and purpose of the study that are of interest to the employer, makes this event voluntary and legal, and the processing of personal data in the process of its implementation – in line with current legislation in the field of personal data and labor relations.