Thesis (LLD )--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The importance of privacy lies in the fact that it represents the very idea of human dignity or
the preservation of the ‘inner sanctum’. Not surprisingly, however, operational concerns of
employers and technological developments combine continuously to challenge the
preservation of privacy in the workplace. Employees the world over are exposed to numerous
privacy invasive measures, including drug testing, psychological testing, polygraph testing,
genetic testing, psychological testing, electronic monitoring and background checks. Hence,
the issue at the heart of this dissertation is to determine to what extent privacy is protected in
the South African workplace given advancements in technology and the implications (if any)
for the right to privacy as such.
A secondary aim of the dissertation is to attempt to provide a realistic balance between the
privacy concerns of employees and the operational needs of employers in this technological
age. As such the main focus of dissertation falls within the sphere of employment law. In
order to provide an answer to the research issue discussed above, the dissertation addresses
five ancillary or interrelated issues. First, the broad historical development of the legal
protection of privacy is traced and examined. Second, a workable definition of privacy is
identified with reference to academic debate and comparative legislative and judicial
developments. Third, those policies and practices, which would typically threaten privacy in
the employment sphere are identified and briefly discussed. Fourth, a detailed evaluation of
the tension between privacy and a number of selected policies and practices in selected
countries is provided. More specifically, the dissertation considers how these policies and
practices challenge privacy, the rationale for their existence and, if applicable, how these
policies and practices – if necessary through appropriate regulation – may be accommodated
while simultaneously accommodating both privacy and the legitimate concerns of employers.
The selection of these practices and policies is guided by two considerations. At the first level
the emphasis is on those challenges to privacy, which can be traced back to technological
developments and which, as such, foster new and unique demands to the accommodation of
privacy in the workplace. The secondary emphasis is on those policies, which are
representative of the fundamental challenges created by new technologies to privacy.
To effectively address the above issues the dissertation uses the traditional legal methodology
associated with comparative legal research, which includes a literature review of applicable
law and legal frame work and a review of relevant case law and a comparative study of
selected foreign jurisdictions. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Geen opsomming / Fulbright Foundation / Stellenbosch University / Mellon Foundation / NFR
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/17849 |
| Date | 12 1900 |
| Creators | Gondwe, Mimmy |
| Contributors | Dupper, Ockert, Garbers, Christoph, Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Law. Dept. of Mercantile Law. |
| Publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | x, 438 p. |
| Rights | Stellenbosch University |
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