Art. 88 GDPR · Chapter IX: Provisions relating to specific processing situations
Article 88 GDPR: Processing in the context of employment
Text as of 28 October 2026 Reviewed by Sergio Maldonado Elvira on 29 October 2026
Summary (not the official text)
Member States may, by law or by collective agreements, provide for more specific rules to protect employees' rights and freedoms in respect of the processing of their personal data in the employment context. Those rules must include suitable and specific measures to safeguard the data subject's human dignity, legitimate interests and fundamental rights.
Official text
Member States may, by law or by collective agreements, provide for more specific rules to ensure the protection of the rights and freedoms in respect of the processing of employees' personal data in the employment context, in particular for the purposes of the recruitment, the performance of the contract of employment, including discharge of obligations laid down by law or by collective agreements, management, planning and organisation of work, equality and diversity in the workplace, health and safety at work, protection of employer's or customer's property and for the purposes of the exercise and enjoyment, on an individual or collective basis, of rights and benefits related to employment, and for the purpose of the termination of the employment relationship.
Those rules shall include suitable and specific measures to safeguard the data subject's human dignity, legitimate interests and fundamental rights, with particular regard to the transparency of processing, the transfer of personal data within a group of undertakings, or a group of enterprises engaged in a joint economic activity and monitoring systems at the work place.
Each Member State shall notify to the Commission those provisions of its law which it adopts pursuant to paragraph 1, by 25 May 2018 and, without delay, any subsequent amendment affecting them.
Source: Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Official Journal L 119, 4.5.2016, as corrected. Only the text published in the Official Journal is authentic. © European Union, https://eur-lex.europa.eu
Text as of 28 October 2026.
This is reference material, not legal advice.
Related recitals
This list is under review.
Court of Justice judgments
- C-65/23, MK v K GmbH
Judgment of 19 December 2024ECLI:EU:C:2024:1051
Works agreements on employee data must meet Arts. 5, 6(1) and 9 as well as Art. 88(2), and courts can fully review whether processing under them is necessary.
- C-34/21, Hauptpersonalrat der Lehrerinnen und Lehrer beim Hessischen Kultusministerium v Minister des Hessischen Kultusministeriums
Judgment of 30 March 2023ECLI:EU:C:2023:270
National employment data rules that only repeat general GDPR conditions are not 'more specific rules' under Art. 88 and must be disapplied unless they are a valid legal basis under Art. 6(3).
Fines
Amounts are shown in the currency in which the fine was imposed.
- Foodinho s.r.l.: EUR 5,000,000
Garante per la protezione dei dati personali, ItalyDecision of 13 November 2024Appeal status: unknown
Glovo-group delivery platform geolocated over 35,000 riders even off shift, used facial recognition for identity checks, made automated decisions (including deactivations) without safeguards, and let other group companies see rider data.
- Deliveroo Italy s.r.l.: EUR 2,500,000
Garante per la protezione dei dati personali, ItalyDecision of 22 July 2021Appeal status: unknown
Food-delivery platform managed about 8,000 riders through opaque algorithms (booking and work allocation), collected excessive data including location, and lacked a DPIA and proper records.