Privacy and Employment Law

(Hardback)

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Description

Workplace privacy is not simply a theoretical legal issue, but is a matter of basic human dignity. Employers in a number of countries are reportedly deploying "human resource policies" which may or may not be illegal. In many cases they are not at present unlawful, though they may reflect dubious management practices. These policies include drug testing of employees, surveillance of staff and their communications, attempts to censor the freedom of speech of employees, psychometric or personality testing, and requirements to provide intimate health information irrelevant to work in order to obtain employment or promotion. This work examines in detail the emergence of these policies in the modern employment context and the gradually developing legal response. Adopting a human rights perspective, the author demonstrates that several legal systems are now transposing human rights law from the public sphere into the employment relationship in order to protect the individual rights of job candidates and employees. The human right of privacy is one of the cornerstone rights recognized in the employment context and is the focus of this book. The book deals with the law as it stands in the UK, France, the USA and Canada, and includes an analysis of the potential impact of the Human Rights Act 1999.

Reviews

With the Human Rights Act 1998 about to come fully into force, a book on the protection of private interests in the workplace appears at the right time.a valuable and clear introduction to a debate which is likely to become more prominent in the future. -- Michael Ford * Industrial Law Journal *
a thorough and comparative analysis of the theory and practice of privacy protection in the workplacea welcome addition to the literature. -- Colin J. Bennett * The Law and Politics Book Review *

Author Bio

John Craig is a Barrister and Solicitor with the law firm Heenan Blaikie,in Toronto, Canada.