Court case II SA/Rz 1539/21 – Court Ruling (Poland, 2022)

The Director of a public school was requested to provide a comprehensive set of information related to the members of its public education board. The information requested included, inter alia, the name, age, completed academic education, position held, and remuneration. The Director provided the information requested, but refused to disclose the members' remuneration, claiming that the provision of this information would violate the employee's privacy and data protection rights. Upon request to review the decision, the Director upheld it. The Director explained that information related to the expenditures of a public body on the remuneration of its employees is indeed public information, but that this did not imply that the employees would consent to the publication of their names and individual remuneration. Referring to a decision of the Polish Supreme Court in case [https://orzeczenia.nsa.gov.pl/doc/389F848379 I OSK 695/14], the Director pointed out that what is considered public information is the amount of public funds allocated to a given position as a base salary, not the exact remuneration a particular person receives (which may include many other elements, such as social benefits, deductions, etc.) The claimant appealed this decision with the Head of the Municipality, which in turn upheld the contested decision, pointing out that individual remuneration attached to a specific name is personal data under Article 4(1) GDPR. Additionally, the Head of the Municipality maintained that according to Article 11 of the Polish Labour Code, an employer is obliged to respect the rights and dignity of employees, including their right to privacy, and therefore to keep salary information secret. In view of the above, the claimaint filed a complaint before the The Provincial Administrative Court in Rzeszów (Wojewódzki Sąd Administracyjny w Rzeszowie - WSA Rzeszów). The WSA Rzeszów overturned the decision from the Head of the Municipality. The court held that the remun