Do I have a right of access to information from my employer?

• Employment Law
• Private Clients

Information about employees is collected by the employer as part of the employment relationship. The collection, processing and storage of this data begins during the application process and continues beyond the employment relationship. The following article aims to show the extent to which a right of access to information exists and how this allows employees to check the lawfulness of the processing of their data by the employer.

The protection of privacy must also be respected in the employment relationship

Due to their legal and actual dependence on the employer, employees must be given special protection. Hardly any other contractual relationship gives rise to such extensive and ongoing processing of personal data. Processing means any handling of personal data, irrespective of the means and procedures used, in particular the acquisition, storage, retention, use, modification, disclosure, archiving, erasure or destruction of data.

Labour law restricts data processing by the employer

Labour law restricts data processing by the employer to the extent that only certain employee data may be processed. It is only permitted to process data that the employer has a legitimate interest in processing and that is also necessary for the performance of the employment relationship. This includes data about the employee that is suitable for providing information about suitability for the employment relationship (e.g. professional career, references or professionally relevant publications) or that relates to the performance of the employment contract (e.g. home address, date of birth, bank account for the purpose of salary transfers and performance assessments for the determination of variable salary components). Accordingly, all data processing must be job-related and the data may only be processed to the extent necessary and only for the purpose for which it was obtained.

Employees’ right to information

Based on the Data Protection Act, employees have the right to know which of their data is being processed and for what purpose. The statutory right of access to information makes it possible to find out whether the employer is complying with the strict legal requirements or whether there has been a violation of privacy and whether there is a right to have the collected information corrected or deleted. The request for information may be unfounded. The employer only has the right to refuse to provide information if the request can be categorised as an abuse of rights.

The employer must provide the information in writing or in the form in which the data can be easily accessed (in the case of electronic data, for example, as a ZIP file or by providing access to the employer’s database). In principle, the employer has 30 days to provide the information and free of charge. As part of this information under data protection law, the person seeking information must be provided with a catalogue of information. This includes, in particular, the identity and contact details of the controller, the personal data processed as such and the purpose of the processing.