An employee of the federal bank of Crédit Mutuel Maine-Anjou, Basse-Normandie (the company), who had held staff representation mandates since 1992, submitted requests for compensation and recall to an industrial tribunal. salary due to union discrimination.
By preliminary judgment of April 4, 2019, the industrial tribunal ordered the company, in application of article 144 of the code of civil procedure, to communicate a certain number of documents which contain personal data relating to 9 employees of the company (including pay slips, etc.). The company filed a nullity appeal against this judgment to no avail. Subsequently, she filed an appeal against the judgment rendered on 1is July 2021 by the Caen Court of Appeal (social chamber, section 2).
The question arose as to whether the immediate appeal is admissible and, if so, under what conditions.
By judgment of November 30, 2023 (2nd Civ., November 30, 2023, appeal no. 21-20.979), the second civil chamber of the Court of Cassation declared the appeal admissible to the extent that “the possible infringement of the rights of third parties , concerned by a measure of communication of their personal data to parties to a dispute, based on the provisions of article 144 of the code of civil procedure, must necessarily be the subject of an examination by the judge before execution of the measure with regard to the GDPR, such an attack no longer being able, once the documents have been communicated, to be usefully repaired by a subsequent control.”
She then referred the case, in application of article 1015-1 of the code of civil procedure, to the social chamber for an opinion on the following questions:
1 — Does the circumstance that the communication of documents containing personal data be requested in the course of an action for compensation initiated before an industrial tribunal for alleged acts of union discrimination call for a specific interpretation of the judge’s office with regard to the lawfulness of data processing within the meaning of Article 6 of the GDPR?
2 — More precisely, must the judge take into account, if necessary ex officio, the interests of the persons concerned and weigh them according to the circumstances of this case, of this type of procedure, and taking into account the requirements resulting of the principle of proportionality as well as, in particular, those resulting from the principle of data minimization referred to in Article 5, § 1isunder c), of this regulation?
The social chamber of the Court of Cassation delivered its opinion on April 24, 2024.
On the question of compliance with the provisions of the GDPR and in light of the opinion of the social chamber, the second social chamber:
– infers that the processing resulting from the communication by the employer ordered by the judge, of documents containing personal data, such as pay slips of…
