The individual labor contract contains a number of general clauses near which can be placed by the parties other clauses through negotiation. One of the most common is the confidentiality clause.

The employee has an obligation of confidentiality narrowly and specifically to keep the secret, under Article 39, paragraph 2, letter f of the Labor Code.

By the confidentiality clause, according to Art. 26, the parties agree, during the duration of the labor contract and after its termination, not to transmit data or information they acknowledged during the execution of the contract, the conditions set forth in the internal regulations in collective agreements or individual labor contracts.

The confidentiality clause can aim, for the employee, a broader range of information than that the one defined by the concepts of “classified information” and “work secret”.

The confidentiality clause:

• is optional;
• can be introduced in the individual labor contract while and after signing it, through an addendum;
• is admissible in the employment contract, even if the employee’s freedom of expression, as every citizen, is guaranteed by the Constitution;
• prohibits only the transmission of information that have been declared confidential in the clause and not any information which they have acquired during the performance of contact parts.

Through the confidentiality clause is inserted the obligation not to disclose to both parties of the contract. In practice, this clause refers often to the employee.

The obligation of confidentiality exists both during the execution and after individual termination of employment.

You need to differentiate between confidentiality clause that does not require payment of any remuneration compensatory and non-competition clause, where the employer pays an indemnity in the period in which this clause has effects.

To avoid difficulties in proving the breach of the confidentiality clause, the employer must define exactly the classified information and to establish the limits of confidentiality obligations or penalties in case of violation of the clause.

The violation of the confidentiality clause by either party draws an order of defaulting on payment of damages (Article 26, paragraph 2 – Labor Code). If the legal requirements are met, the employee may be concomitantly sanctioned disciplinary.

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