In this circular, we would like to address the recording and processing of personal data by an employer. Upon conclusion of an employment contract, agreement to perform work, or agreement on work activity pursuant to the relevant provisions of the Labour Code, an employment relationship arises between the employee and the employer. Within the employment relationship, the employer processes the personal data of employees for the purpose of processing the necessary agenda in the area of payroll, tax, or in the area of social and health insurance. The employer thus has a statutory obligation to carry out the processing of employees’ personal data necessary for compliance with his obligations imposed upon him on the basis of special legal regulations.
The Act on the Protection of Personal Data distinguishes, from the perspective of the protection of personal data, between (i) personal data (any information relating to an identified or identifiable data subject) and (ii) sensitive data (personal data revealing national, racial or ethnic origin, political attitudes, membership in trade union organisations, religion and philosophical beliefs, conviction for a criminal offence, health status and sexual life of the data subject, genetic data of the data subject and biometric data which enables direct identification or authentication of the data subject). The processing of sensitive data is only possible if so provided by a special act. In employment relationships, this concerns, for example, data on health status for the purposes of recording and compensating for occupational injuries and occupational diseases pursuant to the Labour Code. The Labour Code in its provision Section 316(4) states that the employer must not require sensitive information from the employee unless there is a material reason therefor consisting in the nature of the work.
The collection of personal data by the employer for the purpose of fulfilling the obligation consisting primarily in the calculation of wages, notification to the social security office, payment of social and health insurance, etc., is therefore an obligation of the employer. To fulfil the statutory obligation, it is necessary to record the following personal data: surname, first name, all former surnames, date and place of birth, birth number, identity card number. In the event that the employee receives a tax allowance for his children, the employer must supply, and therefore process, also the birth numbers of the employees’ children. Furthermore, it is necessary, if the employer completes tax returns for his employees, to record additionally information about the spouse. For the calculation of wages, it is often necessary to know the previous employment. The list of personal data which are mandatory for the fulfilment of employees’ obligations will then be approximately as follows:
identification data of the employee: first name, surname, date, place of birth and place of permanent residence (usually contained in the employment contract),
for pension insurance record sheets sent to the social security administration pursuant to the provision of Section 37 of the Act on the Organisation and Implementation of Social Security, the following are required: date and place of birth, all former surnames, birth number, place of permanent residence. If the citizen participated in pension insurance abroad and the employer is his first employer after the termination of pension insurance abroad, also data on the name and address of the foreign insurance carrier and the foreign insurance number,
for correct calculation of wages, education and previous practice may be important,
for correct calculation of monthly advances on tax pursuant to the Income Tax Act and the Tax Code, it is necessary to know the type of pension received and the declaration of the income tax payer, if the employee claims tax relief and the spouse is employed: surname and first name of the spouse, name and address of the employer, if the employee claims relief for a dependent child: first name, surname and birth number of the child,
for establishing the exact date of entitlement to retirement for old-age pension, pursuant to the Act on the Organisation and Implementation of Social Security, the number of children is recorded (this concerns women, where this aspect is taken into account),
pursuant to the provision of Section 83 of the Employment Act, when employing persons with disabilities, it is necessary to know the health disadvantage,
for the payment of health insurance, pursuant to the provision of Section 10 of the Public Health Insurance Act, it is necessary to know the health insurance company,
and finally, when employing foreigners, for the purpose of reporting the employment of foreigners, it is necessary to know the state citizenship of the employee (but not nationality).
The above reflects and respects also the Act on the Protection of Personal Data, which in its provision Section 5(1)(d) stipulates that it is in accordance with the law to collect personal data if there exists a statutory obligation to collect personal data, but only upon fulfilment of the established purpose and to the extent necessary for fulfilment of the established purpose. This purpose is the fulfilment of the statutory obligations of the employer established either directly by the Labour Code or by other legal regulations.
Lukáš Barnet Mašek, Kočí, Aujezdský Law Firm www.e-Advokacie.cz – on-line legal advisory services
This text was originally prepared by the law firm Mašek, Kočí, Aujezdský in cooperation with the Association for Electronic Commerce (APEK) as legal circular No. 2/2015 intended for members of this association.
This text was translated from Czech to English using an AI translator.