D/EU: Employee Questionnaire (E.U. Parliament)

Category: Nachrichten
By: R. Olschewski - 2B Advice GmbH - the privacy benchmark

You know what it's like: Applicants or new employees initially have to fill out an employee questionnaire. Such a form is more or less comprehensive, but normally only contains the essentials. Questions are often the object of long negotiations between management and the HR department on one side and the workers' council and data protection representatives on the other side. Pre-employment medical screenings are not uncommon either.

Legislation in the E.U. is generally known for its high standards and strict norms when it comes to the protection of fundamental rights. Consequently, strict compliance with the provisions of employee data protection is also expected from companies operating in Europe.

 

Different Newspapers have now reported, that the E.U administration collected very detailed and intimate information about its approx. 1,500 employed assistants and – according to various newspaper reports – did not even shy away from questions such as “Do you have hemorrhoids or sexually transmittable diseases?”, “Have there been cases of mental illness in your family?” and “When did you have your last menstruation?” Even the travel habits were part of the comprehensive questionnaire, which was then verified with other information from unnamed sources. For example, employees who falsely claimed they had not been to Africa were later informed by the E.U. administration that it was known they had not stated the truth.

In addition, the employees were asked to submit blood and urine samples for medical tests.

Protesting E.U. politicians were allegedly informed that the questionnaire was not relevant for the recruitment process. However, the employees affected were told exactly the opposite.

 

As various sources have reported, authorized data protection experts found massive violations of data protection provisions in the questions. Despite this, the questionnaire has not been withdrawn yet. It remains to be seen whether legal steps are required to make it clear to the E.U. administration that current and potential employees are not completely without rights and that questions are only permitted when the answers relate to the employment relationship.

 

So far, companies have only asked the absolutely essential information in the employee questionnaires. Additional questioning should be made dependent on whether recording and processing the data are permitted.

 

 

Source: www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/33/33247/1.html

www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article5544959/EU-Parlament-schnueffelt-neue-Mitarbeiter-aus.html

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