This is the first issue of the Conditions of Work Digest devoted to workers' privacy in industrialized countries. The focus of this issue is the protection of personal data in the employment relationship, which is organized as follows:

Part I introduces the issues surrounding workers' privacy in the context of new data-processing techniques.
Part II contains international instruments, or relevant provisions thereof, on the protection of personal data in general and on the protection of workers' personal data in particular.
Part III provides a country-by-country analysis of the implications for employers and workers of the legislation that has been adopted in 19 countries to protect the privacy of the citizen in data-processing systems.
Part IV, on enterprise-level practice, includes relevant provisions of collective agreements as well as policy statements, directives or guidelines issued by individual employers.
Part V presents the positions of workers' organizations, employers' organizations, governments and others on workers' privacy in data-processing systems.