Italian SA fines a company for post-sick leave questionnaires

A trade union report highlighted a widespread practice within an automotive company: after an absence due to illness, accident or hospitalisation, workers were interviewed and asked to complete a questionnaire. The document, completed by a direct supervisor, was then sent to the Human Resources Department, which, together with the supervisor and/or the competent doctor, assessed, on the basis of the company's representations, any initiatives to protect the health of workers, such as modifying the workstation or intervening in working relationships. During the investigation, the Italian Supervisory Authority (SA) found several infringements of the EU Regulation (GDPR), including the lack of clear and transparent information for employees and the lack of a legal basis for data processing, including health data. The Italian SA also found that workers' data were being stored in an irrelevant (absences from work) and disproportionate (up to ten years) manner, and that the data processing was not relevant for assessing the professional skills of the employees. The Italian SA imposed a definitive ban on data processing and ordered the company to delete any data already collected and stored. The Italian SA also issued an administrative fine of 50 000 Euro.