Video Surveillance

If already in 1970, with the Workers’ Statute, the limits of the installation of audio-visual systems and other tools were defined, from which the possibility of remote control of the worker derived, with the advent of the GDPR the regulation on video surveillance was further strengthened.
Video surveillance, moreover, not only shows serious implications for the protection of the person as a worker, but also as a human being with fundamental rights and freedoms. On this point, however, on January 29, 2020, the European Data Protection Committee (EDPB) adopted the final version of the Guidelines on video surveillance treatments, in order to ensure a consistent application of the GDPR on the subject.
The Data Controller, therefore, is bound to a timely and thoughtful assessment of compliance with a plurality of regulations and provisions not only in the privacy sphere, but also – and, perhaps, above all – labour law. A clear example of this is the recent sentence issued by the Criminal Cassation no. 173 of 17 January 2020, according to which the consent of the worker does not constitute an exemption of the criminal liability of the Owner who has installed a video surveillance system in the absence of a prior union agreement.