The chairman of the works council had set up automatic forwarding for emails that went to his business e-mail inbox. Where to go To his private email inbox. The employer noticed this and found it anything but optimal. He therefore warned the chairman of the works council. However, he was not impressed by this and in the following period sent business documents, such as a complete personnel list including salary details, to a new private e-mail address. He processed them at home and then sent the revised documents back to his business email address.

The employer also became aware of this and now it was enough for him. He proposed that the chairman of the works council be excluded from the works council due to gross violation of legal duties as a works council. The chairman of the works council and also the works council objected: There was no serious breach of due diligence. The chairman of the works council wanted to prepare the documents for the negotiations on a works agreement. He had ensured data protection at all times. No third party had access to the documents, automatic deletion and virus protection were also activated. The employer also did not suffer any damage.

The arguments put forward did not convince the Hessian Regional Labor Court. It considered the exclusion of the chairman of the works council in accordance with Section 23 (1) BetrVG to be lawful. According to this, the employer may demand the expulsion of a works council member from the works council due to gross violation of his legal obligations. In accordance with Section 79a p. 1 BetrVG, the works council must comply with data protection regulations when processing personal data. In the present case, the court assumed that the chairman of the works council had seriously breached this obligation. For example, the forwarded documents were of particular quality, as they

included numerous personal data, such as the names of all employees, their position in the company, level, basic pay, tariff group, tariff entry, etc. There was no need to forward the documents in order to process them at home. In addition, the requirement of data minimization was violated.

Conclusion: Forwarding official emails or other business data to the private email inbox is a dance on very thin ice. It also doesn't matter whether you are a member of the works council or not. As soon as the data leaves the employer's network, it is deprived of its protection. Who processes and reproduces them when, where, for what purposes can no longer be traced. Employees and works councils violate their due diligence and confidentiality obligations to a considerable extent if they carelessly forward official emails and business data to private e-mail addresses or upload them to clouds or AI tools.