PUODO (President of the Personal Data Protection Office) in the recently published statement has confirmed the opinion presented by us, concluding that whenever an employee submits a form to obtain a company social fund benefit (ZFŚS) then it is this employee who hands over the personal data of the family members essential to assess the social situation. An approval of a family member to process the personal data by the employer is not required. The rule is to transfer the data in the form of a statement from the employee. The employer holds the right to record the data in the scope necessary to have them confirmed valid.
 
PUODO has indicated that is not always legitimate to keep the documents or their copies confirming the social situation. Data retrieved by the employer should always be adequate, appropriate and essential for the purposes they are being processed. The example of non-conformity with the rule and at the same time, excessive document storing, is keeping a copy of the Tax Income Statement of an employee’s spouse. Whereas there is no doubt that an employer is entitled to require the income information of such person, keeping a copy of the Tax Income Statement is unjustified. The employer should limit the requirements only to get an insight of such document to confirm the information about the spouse’s income. In our understanding such a position produces doubts. The income of an employee and spouse in an equal share determine the social situation. Moreover, the employer has to have the possibility to prove that the company genuinely assessed the social situation of an employee and his/her family. 

We suggest to review the rules of personal data processing in use for the ZFŚS cases, in particular in the scope of agreements and documentation stored. 

In case of any questions, we remain at your disposal. 

CONTACT:

Łukasz Chruściel
Attorney-at-law/ Partner
lukasz.chrusciel@raczkowski.eu

Paweł Sych
Attorney-at-law/Partner
pawel.sych@raczkowski.eu