The municipal executive of Leiden – Court Ruling (Netherlands, 2021)

The appellant is a civil servant at the municipality of Leiden. He does not want the municipality to share his personal data with third parties because he fears he would lose control over his data. The municipality of Leiden outsources its HR administration to Service71; Service71 uses YouForce as the HRM tool which is offered by RAET B.V. On 15 January 2018 the municipality denied appellant’s request to delete his performance reports and assessments from YouForce. Appellant has also objected to the processing of his data by the company Mindtree in India. In the appealed decision the Court of First Instance of the Hague considered that the municipality had compelling and legitimate grounds for the data processing, which override the interests of the appellant. The Court found no evidence that the appellant’s personal data was processed in India by the employees of Mindtree. The appellant argues that: 1. The Court failed to recognize that his request should also be considered as an access request because it was not possible for him to make sure that the data processing in question was lawful. 2. The municipality has no legal basis for sharing his data with Service71 and RAET B.V. and that the data processing itself is excessive. 3. Personal data of employees, including the appellant, can be accessed by the company Mindtree in India. On the first point, the Council ruled that the appellant had already had direct access to his data via the YouForce personnel file, which means his request should not have been considered as access request. On the second point, the Council established that the appellant did not object to the performance reports and assessments as such. He also did not object to having these reports digitalized, provided that the storage would take place on the premises of the municipality, for example on the computer of his supervisor. However, appellant did not want the reports to be stored by third parties, such as Servicepunt71 and RAET B.V. It