Istituto di Istruzione Superiore “G. Renda” di Polistena, Reggio Calabria – €900 Fine (Italy, 2022)

A teacher lodged a complaint against his employing institute for publishing on its institutional website the termination of the complainant's permanent employment contract, with measures adopted by the Ministry of Education attached. During a preliminary investigation, the Institute defended itself by explaining that it had acted in accordance with the requests of the Ministry of Education and Article 23 of Legislative Decree no. 33/2013 by publishing summary information containing data strictly necessary to identify the teacher without referring to the reasons for the dismissal. The Institute considered that the disputed publication was in the legitimate interest of third parties and students. It would make it possible to avoid recruiting the same unfit teacher as a temporary replacement, thereby enabling third parties to conclude a new fixed-term employment contract and guaranteeing continuity of teaching for pupils, which is why the publication was not anonymized. He also pointed to the troubled context of the Covid pandemic to justify the treatment. Although the Institute withdrew the publication at the DPA’s request, it did not appear at the hearing scheduled. The DPA considered that the controller has not verified the existence of a specific provision requiring the mandatory publication of a measure containing information on the termination of an employment contract. The Personal Data Protection Code specified that the publication of personal data by public bodies is only authorised where it is provided for by a legislative provision or, in the cases provided for by law, by a regulatory provision, in compliance with the principles of data protection [https://gdpr-info.eu/art-5-gdpr/ (article 5 (1) a) and c) GDPR)]. In addition, the DPA considered that the controller did not check the data and information that it was entitled to publish under the principles of relevance and non-excess. The GDPR reiterates the obligation to implement appropriate measures t