Must an employer obtain employees' consent to disclose their remuneration data to a court?

ANSWER

First, it should be noted that personal data are divided into ordinary personal data and special category (sensitive) personal data. The catalogue of special category personal data is a closed catalogue, and only personal data listed in Article 9(1) GDPR constitute special category personal data. All other data will be ordinary personal data. Employees' remuneration data are ordinary personal data.

The legal basis for disclosing the requested data to a court will be Article 6(1)(c) GDPR (i.e. a legal obligation) in conjunction with Article 248 of the Polish Civil Procedure Code: "Everyone is obliged, on a court order, to produce at the place and within the time specified a document in their possession that constitutes evidence of a fact relevant to the resolution of the case, unless the document contains confidential information."

This provision therefore gives courts the right to demand from anyone, including controllers (employers), documents that may help resolve a specific court dispute, even if those documents contain personal data of natural persons.