European Employment Law Cases

Case Reports

2018/5 Evidence from long-term keylogger surveillance cannot be used in a dismissal lawsuit (GE)

Keywords Unfair dismissal, Privacy
Authors Paul Schreiner
DOI
Author's information

Paul Schreiner
Paul Schreiner is an attorney at law at Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH.
  • Abstract

      The German federal court for labour law matters, the Bundesarbeitsgericht (the ‘BAG’), has held that evidence cannot be used in a dismissal lawsuit if the employer has obtained it from long-term surveillance using keylogger-software. Employers must not keep their employees under constant surveillance and must therefore expect their legal position to be weak if they try to dismiss an employee based on findings from such monitoring. The court ruling preceded the ECtHR Barbulescu ruling of 5 September 2017 (featured in EELC 2017/4) in a similar case.

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