Protection of Workers’ Personal Data in the Context of Industry 4.0

Abstract

For many years, we have been witnessing a process of profound transformation due to the development of new ICT that, while revolutionizing positively many sectors of our society, strengthening and improving almost all activities, on the other hand, they have also enhanced many challenges and insecurities, especially in the employment context in such a way that attention to privacy and data protection has been growing with an increased pace and relevance. In the last decades, besides the concept of “privacy”, it has introduced the concept of “Data Protection”, which differs from the previous concept since it refers to ensuring the proper use of personal data by giving individuals control over how their data is accessed, used or shared. Today the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR, 2016/679/EU) has provided a harmonized, consistent, and comprehensive framework on the processing of personal data. In the employment context, however, the GDPR has enacted only Article 88 that explicitly focuses on the workers’ data protection, leaving to the Member States the obligation to amend or replace their respective national data protection laws to align with the GDPR. Regardless of the great importance of individual rights in the employment context, the European Union has not already established harmonized rules. The first chapter deals with the topic of Industry 4.0, the starting point of the digital transformation, its principles and the associated technologies, with a focal point on the evolution of the employment context. The second chapter focuses on the evolution of workers’ personal data protection during history and underlies the issues that in the GDPR has brought. Lastly, the third chapter focuses on the remote control of workers. Thus, it will be analyzed as the reform of Article 4 of the Workers’ Statute, since it came at a time when it was no longer possible to ignore the impact of technological innovation on labor relations, has evolved after the Jobs Act, and it will be pointed out which are the conditions for the lawfulness of the use of data obtained through remote control.