It is public knowledge that in recent decades as part of the development of information technologies and the globalization of the economy, the use of electronic mails (e-mails) and social networks, constitute an essential source of communication between people, whether for work, academic or personal reasons.
However, not in all companies in the world there is freedom in the use of electronic mails (e-mails) and social networks granted to workers by companies, in order to illustrate this issue I will take the Peruvian case as an example and for this I am going to base myself on a legal ruling in this regard.
Recently, the Supreme Court in Cassation No. 14614-2016-Lima, published by the official newspaper El Peruano, in the Cassation package of May 30, 2017, fixed that constitutes an excess that the employer indicates that he owns the accounts of electronic mail (e-mails) and that you are empowered to review its content. To admit this would be to collide with the constitutional right to privacy and inviolability of workers' communications, so that the Internal Labor Regulations cannot authorize the revision of this content.
For the Supreme Court, the development of new technologies has led employers to provide their staff with the internet and other advances in information technology, in order to shorten distances, a fluid and reliable communication in real time, search for information, exchange files, reports, opinions, among others in seconds.
“The use of these new tools will naturally be destined to the provision of their services and employees within the working day; however, the chat, messenger or other chatting system and e-mail made available to the worker may be used by the worker for personal and non-work purposes, ”said the Supreme Court Court.
Regarding the power of control of the employer, rule out that it is unrestricted. “Said business control finds its limits in that its exercise is functional and rational. It is functional because it must be related to the business context, not being able to control the dependent's private sphere; on the other hand, it is rational because the idea is that control must be the result of an intellectual process that justifies it and gives reason to the decision-making process ”.
For the foregoing, I fully agree with the provisions of the Supreme Court Court in the aforementioned Cassation, in which companies should not be empowered to check the emails of their workers, not only for their unconstitutional character, but because at present I understand that organizations have carried out an efficient human resource management process such as recruitment and selection of personnel, established under the principles of participatory management among workers and managers, ethical guidelines on the use of tools and means of work, among others, given that what ultimately interests the organization are the results obtained by its workers efficiently and effectively.
