Is it possible to access a departed employee's business email and disk contents, and what are the legal grounds? What conditions must be met?

ANSWER

An employee's business mailbox is, as a rule, the "property" of the employer. When the employment relationship ends, the employer is entitled to access such a mailbox and retrieve necessary information, documents and files from it in order to ensure continuity of the business and of specific projects, investments or undertakings. Of course, when the employment relationship ends, the mailbox should remain inactive. The employer should redirect incoming messages to another person who will be responsible for specific projects or who will be employed in place of the former employee. An autoresponder can also be set up with information on who should currently receive emails. I would recommend that the employer have a clearly implemented procedure in this regard and that employees be informed about it. More on this topic can be read in our article: Using business email for private purposes and managing a former employee's mailbox