Court of Trento

It is legal to record workers' attendance via badges and smartphones

Dismissal of a female employee who refused to use the new system adopted by the company deemed lawful

by Matteo Prioschi

17 September 2024

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Key points

Employee's doubts about dismissal
More precise and objective information on dismissal
Guaranteed security of worker data

2' min read

It is possible to use a mobile phone placed inside the workplace as a device to record employees' entry and exit, instead of a traditional time clock. This is what emerges from the ruling (registration number 423/23) with which the Court of Trento on 16 July sanctioned the legitimacy of the dismissal imposed on an employee who refused to use the new system introduced by her employer.

The employee's doubts about dismissal

In order to facilitate clocking in and out, a company placed two mobile phones at a construction site in which a specific application was installed allowing them to be used as a time clock. Basically, employees were asked to record the start and end of their activity by bringing their personal badge (to which was added a tag with Nfc technology) closer to the mobile phone.

The new method was the subject of a meeting with the provincial secretaries of the trade unions and the unions' unions, following which the company provided employees with an information note on the operation of the new system and urged them to refer to the site manager if the individual employee wished to view the time stamps recorded by the device.

An employee challenged the legitimacy of the new recording method and refused to use it (she continued to record entry and exit on paper forms), claiming various irregularities with respect to the provisions of the European Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This resulted in several objections, suspensions and thus dismissal without notice.

Bene il lavoro in Italia (con l’ombra degli inattivi)

More precise and objective information on dismissal

The court found essentially only one critical point and that was that the employer had designated as the data controller a person potentially different from the correct one, but who had nevertheless 'fulfilled exactly' his obligations under Article 28 of the GDPR. However, according to the judge, the employee did not show how this caused harm to her interests.

Instead, it was held to be an improvement that the recording of times via the mobile phone was more precise and objective than the signing of the timesheet directly by the employee, with the associated margins for discretion and uncertainty. Thus, the judge did not agree with the employee's argument that the use of the app was unnecessary and constituted an additional and disproportionate processing of data in relation to the need to verify attendance.

Timbra il cartellino ma passa la giornata al bar

Guaranteed security of worker data

The fact that the new system 'provides far greater protection for attendance data than the system involving handwritten entries on paper forms', which were stored in an accessible space and without any specific protection measures, was also welcomed. The employer has adopted pseudonymisation and encryption of the names that cannot be read using only the smartphone-stamping device, and this is sufficient to guarantee confidentiality even if the device is located in a public place.

The employee's request to block the operation of the mobile phone's camera and video camera would be legitimate, but even if it was not complied with, this would not justify the employee's decision not to use the new system. Thus, the new system, the procedures adopted and the information provided by the company were assessed to be in line with the regulations and consequently the dismissal of the employee was considered legitimate.