Brazilian labour court decisions on privacy rights in the technology era

Abstract

The workplace was considerably changed by technological and innovative advances. Some extrapolations of such change, however, occur when the employer monitors landlines and mobile phones, e-mails and instant messaging applications, internet use, and use and behaviur in social networks. Brazilian literature in this area has been developing throughout the years, but it is still insufficient and case law is not uniform, causing legal uncertainty that usually harms the most vulnerable party: the worker. This qualitative empirical study therefore seeks to understand those decision that to maintain and do not maintain (and why) the dismissal with cause in cases involving the use of information and communication technologies. A legal search in the jurisprudence of the Regional Labour Court of the Second Region (São Paulo, Brazil) was performed and decisions published until December 2019 were retrieved and confronted with the understanding provided for in instruments from the International Labor Organization related to the future of work and termination of employment. It seems information and communication technologies are still a recent matter when decisions from the abovementioned Court were analyzed and confronted with International Labor Organization’s instruments. This study understands that privacy and the use of information and communication technologies could be more discussed and incorporated into the Brazilian legislative agenda, so it generates policy development and discussion on the importance of protecting workers’ right to privacy.