산업안전보건법에서의 개인정보보호제도

It is a controversial issue to decide to what extent does the management have access to personal information of workers, as the management provides medical check-up and epidemiology research. The labor is opposed to provide workers’ personal information claiming that the information accessed could affect the employment process while the business owners believe that they need personal information to prevent accidents, which is directly linked to protect workers’ health. It is a time to clarify the limit of accessing to the personal information when the labor is asking unambiguous process of epidemiology research and opening of its result even though it refuses to open the information. In that sense we need to identify what they are claiming from each side to forge a clear relationship between people’s right to know and obligation to provide personal information, which needs to be reflected on the amendment process of OSH act. As of now legal background of workers’ health check-up is written on the Article 43 of OSH Act which follows the Korean Labor Standards Act. The Korean Labor Standards Act finally follows the Constitution to protect health of workers, which as a result gives a legal permission to conduct a special medical check-up of workers. Meanwhile, protection of personal information has a legitimacy based on the right to control one’s own information and right to decide one’s own information, derived from the Article 17 of the Constitution, which says one’s right towards freedom and private life not to be violated. These two grounds require us to review and clarify the legal back ground of special medical check-up of workers.