Did you terminate your employment? What an employer can store about you?

Did you terminate your employment? What an employer can store about you?

One of the novelties of the GDPR is the right to erase personal data. However, this is not the case in some situations. There are also cases where this is not possible and the data must be simply archived. How is it when you have terminated your employment? What data does the employer need to keep even after the termination of employment?

Large extension of rights for employees

What can employer process?

During the employment period, the employer processes the personal data of its employees and this practically cannot be avoided. In some cases, it is even his duty. For example, in fulfilling legal obligations, such as registering with a health insurance company. The employer does not need any approval for this.

However, the employer should not seek or store non-employment-related data. It always depends on how the employer credibly justifies the need for such information. For example, if a jobseeker sends his CV to a company and is not selected for the job, the CV should be shred unless the jobseeker explicitly agrees that his contact will remain in the database for future use.

For the duration of the employee's employment, as a rule, all his / her personal data collected by the employer during the term of the employment relationship are part of the personal file.

Termination of employment

And now to the essence. What if the employment is terminated? What are the rights of the employee and the obligations of the employer:

• upon termination of employment, the employer must automatically erase the employee's family members data that he / she needed for the purpose of providing employee benefits,
• he should also cancel his work email and his work phone number. Alternatively, set up an auto-reply that an employee is no longer working in the business and another person can solve the issue,
• however, the employer may retain data relating to the payroll agenda and data relating to the employee's tax liability upon termination of employment with the employee,
• the employer must inform the employee in writing about the extent of the deleted and retained data upon termination of employment. It is important to note that when the purpose of processing personal data ends, it is appropriate to delete it.

Let's summarize it

Although every entrepreneur, as an employer, has an interest in protecting his property and the health of his employees, in most cases he is not even aware that legislation imposes a number of obligations on him in this area, which he must strictly observe.

Unfortunately, the area of personal data protection is still neglected by employers today and puts it in one of the last places in the light of other labor-law problems. Employers should therefore pay more attention in this area, taking into account the new GDPR.