Purpose

Pages9-9
Commentary
9
tax offices to have access to personalized information are other reasons for the collection
of more and more personal data on workers.
Both the variety of reasons for processing workers’ personal data and the growing
amount of data which are collected and used illustrate the difficulty of deriving viable
solutions to the numerous problems that can arise in this connection at the workplace
from all-purpose rules for data-processing. National laws, such as France’s Act No. 82-
689 of 4 August 1982 respecting workers’ freedoms in the enterprise,1 most of the state
data-protection acts in Germany, and international agreements such as Recommendation
No. R(89)2 of the Council of Europe on the protection of personal data used for
employment purposes2 have paved the way for sectoral regulation. At the same time, the
“simplified norms” adopted by the National Data Processing and Liberties Commission
(CNIL) in France and the deliberate inclusion of codes of conduct in the data protection
acts of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom demonstrate the need for a maximum
of flexibility.
Indispensable though statutory rules are, therefore, additional instruments based on
agreement between employers and workers can play a decisive role in the development
of rules for the processing of personal data. The establishment of international guidance
through a code of practice may, therefore, contribute to the development of a common
foundation for adapting data-protection regulations to the specific aspects of the
employment relationship, and to respect for the personal privacy and dignity of workers
in enterprises.
2. Purpose
The code of practice is intended to provide guidance on the protection of workers’
personal data. Unlike other ILO instruments, such as Conventions, which are legally
binding international treaties, and Recommendations, which are not binding but involve
procedural obligations, the code is an approach that maximizes flexibility by avoiding
binding prescription. While having no binding force, it provides employers and workers
with the basis for rules to be designed by them. They can, therefore, shape the code
according to their own expectations and needs. The Code of Practice contained in this
document therefore should not be confused with the codes of practice or codes of
conduct foreseen, for instance, by the data protection Directive of the European Union
or national legislation such as the British, the Dutch or the New Zealand data protection
laws. In addition to being useful at enterprise level, the code can be used in the
development of legislation, regulations, collective agreements, policies and practical
measures.
3. Definitions
The terminology used in the code relies upon terms generally accepted and used in
international instruments such as the OECD Guidelines on data protection, the Data
Protection Convention of the Council of Europe and the EU Directive on data
1 Journal Officiel, No. 181, 6 August 1982, pp. 2518-2520.
2 Council of Europe: Protection of personal data used for employment purposes (Strasbourg, 1989).

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