Covid-19: Disclosure of infected and body temperature of the workers concerned.
The National Data Protection Commission (CNPD) released two notes announcing guidelines on the disclosure of infected by municipalities and the measurement of workers' body temperature by companies.
In the two documents, CNPD showing itself to be contrary to the two situations, sustaining in the first case “that there is daily disclosure and availability of information, carried out by the National Health Authority, with national totals of suspected cases, confirmed, recovered and deaths, as well as the regional distribution of the number of infected and deaths ”.
In the second case, he argues that “personal health data is sensitive data, revealing aspects of the worker's private life that, in principle, do not have to be known to the employer, nor should they be because they can generate or enhance discrimination ”.
On disclosure of information regarding infected by Covid-19
Local authorities cannot publish health data with identification of the people to whom they relate.
For the same reasons, health data cannot be published either, even without identifying patients, when its small number in a given territorial area, according to their population size, allows the identification of infected persons.
CNPD recalls that local authorities, within the scope of its autonomy and the legitimate performance of its mission of guaranteeing health and civil protection, refrain from adopting initiatives that involve the collection and disclosure of personal data from 4 their fellow citizens when they have no legal basis, nor are they implementing guidelines from the national health authority.
About collecting health dataOof workers
There is no justification for performing acts that, under national law, only the health authorities or the worker himself, in a self-monitoring process, can practice. Actually, the national legislator has not transferred to employers a role that is exclusive to health authorities, nor did they delegate this role to employers.
So, an employer cannot collect and record workers' body temperature or other health information or any risky behaviors of their workers.
CNPD recalls that employers must limit themselves to acting in accordance with the guidelines of the national health authority for the prevention of contagion by the new corona virus in the workplace, in particular those addressed to employers in certain sectors of activity, refraining from adopting initiatives that involve the collection of personal health data of its workers when they have no legal basis, nor have they been ordered by the competent administrative authorities.
