The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the employer can read personal communications from employees

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has dealt quite a significant blow to the confidentiality of employees. As the administrative body has decided, the heads of organizations have the full right to access personal communications of their direct subordinates sent during business hours.

Any correspondence of an employee with colleagues or other individuals created within the European company can be read by the boss or other person at his request. It does not matter at all whether a text message is sent via any program or account. Executives will be able to view any personal information in chat rooms. This is reported by the newspaper Guardian.

Suit from the victim

The reason for such a loud decision was a Romanian engineer. The citizen, whose name is Bogdan Barbulescu, was quite hostile to his boss. The engineer filed a lawsuit with the ECHR, on the basis of which a lawsuit was filed. As the victim said, in 2007 he worked in a private company. The employer illegally obtained access to personal reports to Barbulescu, and then simply dismissed the subordinate. The plaintiff noted that he was offended by such unprofessional behavior of his boss. According to Barbulescu, he had full confidence in the boss, which, in turn, did not justify.

The engineer was firmly convinced that such behavior of employers against subordinates is unacceptable, since it violates the civil right to confidential correspondence. He hoped that the court would agree with his opinion. By the way, earlier Barbulescu received a negative answer to his claim in several Romanian courts.

Case was not won

Unfortunately, the victim did not receive the desired result. The ECtHR rejected his claim, disagreeing with the charges brought against him in the document. Moreover, the court found guilty of Barbulescu himself. As stated by the administrative body, the engineer violated the rules established by the company, and the head had every right to check the activities of his subordinate in the workplace.

European Convention

The decision was made by the court this week, or rather, on Tuesday. It applies to all states that have signed the European Convention on Human Rights. Although, for example, in the UK, a new law is not legally binding, since United Kingdom judges must take into account the decisions of the ECHR, and not obey them unconditionally.

The above European Convention was approved more than half a century ago - September 3, 1953. The document, among other things, guarantees people the rights to freedom of their views, life and security. However, the convention does not mention anything about the life of company employees during working hours. According to Article 8, a person can be completely inviolable in his private life, but here it is a question of family, home and other personal values.