SP Seminar Series

Thursday, October 18th,
Mackintosh-Corry Hall, Room B503,
12:30 to 1:30 pm.

Elin Palm,
PhD Candidate - Department of Philosophy
The Royal Institute of Technology,
Stockholm, Sweden

"Strengthening Employees' Negotiating Power:
The Importance of Contextualized Consent"

Thursday, October 18th,
Mackintosh-Corry Hall, Room B503,
12:30 to 1:30 pm.

The starting point of this presentation is that employees' chances of securing reasonable expectations of privacy at work must be better protected. Prevailing privacy protection legislation accommodates one single dimension of privacy leaving central aspects aside. Whereas workers' personal data enjoys legal protection, their need for local privacy at work is not supported by privacy protection law. Moreover, a dependency asymmetry between employer and job-applicant implies that prospective employees are in a disadvantaged position vis à vis the employer regarding the chances of defending their reasonable interests.

Since an increased usage of work related surveillance will, to a larger extent, require that job-applicants negotiate their privacy interests in employment contracting, it is important to consider means of strengthening employees' negotiating power. Conditions should be established under which both parties' consent to contractual agreements may be considered morally acceptable.

Everyone welcome!