On 30 March 2023, the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) issued its judgment in case C- 34/21 (Hauptpersonalrat der Lehrerinnen und Lehrer beim Hessischen Kultusministerium v Minister des Hessischen Kultusministeriums) on the reference for a preliminary ruling within the context of a dispute between the Principal Staff Committee for Teachers and the Ministry of Education of the Land Hessen (Germany) taking issue with the fact that the live streaming of classes by videoconference, as provided for by national legislation, was not conditional on the consent of the teachers concerned. The ECJ referred to Article 88 of the GDPR allowing Member States to provide for “more specific” rules to the processing of employees' personal data in the employment context and ruled that national rules must comply with the limits set forth by paragraph 2 of Article 88. Where the referring court finds that the national provisions do not satisfy the conditions laid down in Article 88(1) and (2) of the GDPR, it must still verify whether those provisions constitute a legal basis for the processing, referred to in another article of the GDPR; if that is the case, the application of “more specific” national provisions must not be disregarded.
Originally published by April, 2023
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