Confidentiality of Employment Relationships

• Author: Radu Razvan Popescu
• Pages: 108-112

European Integration - Realities and Perspectives. Proceedings 2018

108

Confidentiality of Employment Relationships

Radu Răzvan Popescu1

Abstract: Objectives Throughout the duration of the individual employment contract, both the employee and

the employer, comes into possession of data and information that is private. Prior Work This kind of

information that is confidential is practically divided from a legal nature perspective into three categories:

confidential data under the loyalty obligation, data and information that are not disclosed due to the existence

of a confidentiality clause and those data and information that, according to the special l aw, are classified as

secret service or state secret. At the same ti me, the employer is under the obligation to keep the

confidentiality of personal data and information that he she finds about his/her employees. Results the length

of these periods in which parties have to maintain confidentiality is another issue that has given rise to

disputes both in the literature and practice of the courts of justice. Value we think this article is an important

step in the disclosure of the problem eraised by this two concepts.

Keywords: confidentiality clause; damages of interests; service secret; loyalty obligation

According to labour legislation in Romania, respectively the Labour Code - Law no.5 3/20032, the

employee has a fidelity obligation towards his employer, regulated through art. 39 para. 2 letter d, and

the obligation to observe the work secret (art.39 para.2 letter f), but the employer also undertakes to

ensure the confidentiality of the personal data of its employees (art. 40 para. 2 letter i).

In addition, between the two parties a commitment/negotiated clause may occur, by means of which it

is established that throughout the entire duration of the individual employment contract and after its

termination no data or information known during the running of the contract will be transmitted, in the

conditions set through internal regulations, applicable collective employment contracts or individual

employment contracts.

Not last, according to the European Union regulations, starting with the date of 25 th of May 2018,

Regulation 2016/679 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal

data and on the free movement of such data3 enters into effect.

In art. 88 of this Regulation it is established that by law or by means of collective agreements, the

member states may Member States may, by law or by collective agreements, provide for more specific

rules to ensure the protection of the rights and freedoms in respect of the processing of employees'

personal data in the employment context, in particular for the purposes of the recruitment, the

performance of the contract of employment, including discharge of obligations laid down by law or by

collective agreements, management, planning and organization of work, equality and diversity in the

1 Associate Professor, PhD, National School of Political and Administrative Studies, Romania, Address: Bd. Expoziției 30A,

sector 1, etaj 2-4, Bucharest, 010324, Tel.: 0725 888 938, Romania, E-mail: radupopescu77@yahoo.com.

2 Republished in the Official Gazette no. 345 of 18 May 2011, as subsequently modified and completed.

3 Published in JO L 119/1, through which Directive 95/46/EC was abrogated.