Use and control of institutional email in the work environment

Abstract

Regarding the relationship between labor relations and the technological advance in the last decades, a new concern has emerged. It has become necessary to solve increasing conflicts between the employer’s property and the worker’s privacy, and to understand this conflict under the lens of Doctrine and Jurisprudence. This article intends to be explanatory of this conflict, focusing particularly on the e-mail as a tool require at work. Clarifying the concepts of privacy, supervising faculty and direction the employer has over emails that circulate through the institutional email. The proposal is based on the idea that the inviolability of any private communication aims to protect private space. However, not completely, since the employer can manage control measures over institutional emails. As a result of this dispute or conflict of interests, an analysis is presented, which shows different cases that evince infringement of privacy, and determines whether the measure adopted by the employer is justified, necessary and proportionate.