Ensuring the employer’s right to information protection: Problems of legal regulation

Abstract

In the context of the rapid development of information and communication technologies and the proclamation of the constitutional right of everyone to freely search, receive and disseminate information, it is becoming increasingly difficult to restrict access to information of various kinds. Meanwhile, the confidential information at the disposal of the employer, access to which he restricts either in his own interests (commercial secret), or in the public interest or in the interests of third parties (information that has a secret regime, personal data of individuals) needs protection. The subject of the study is the provisions of the legislation, including labor legislation, which allow the employer, as the owner of confidential information, to build a system of limited access to it and take measures against employees who violate the established rules for protecting information. An analysis of the relevant norms leads to the conclusion that in the rapidly developing information society, which provides ample opportunities for the instant transmission (distribution) of a significant amount of information, the current legal regulation does not fully meet the requirements for balancing the rights and legitimate interests of the employee and the employer, since it allows the employer to stop the employee’s access to protected information only by dismissing him on a disciplinary basis, which forces the employer to make such decisions even in cases where there are no grounds for this fixed by law (disclosure), thereby violating the rights of the employee. In this regard, it is proposed to introduce a legal mechanism for depriving an employee of access to confidential information when he commits actions that create a threat of its dissemination, which, on the one hand, will exclude him from working with such information, and on the other hand, will allow him (under certain conditions) to continue work for this employer. Such a mechanism, being aimed at optimal reconciliation of the interests of employers and employees, will ensure the right of the employer to the protection of information and at the same time will not allow excessive restriction of the rights of the employee.