Germany: Using Digital Payslips

An employer’s obligation to provide payslips to their employees, can generally be satisfied by uploading an electronic payslip document, to a digital password protected mailbox.

So held a recent appeal decision of the German Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht – BAG) against a claim by an employee who had insisted on receiving her payslips in paper form instead of via the digital mailbox.

The relevant group works agreement (WA) allowed the employer to make all personnel documents available to employees in a digital, password protected employee mailbox.  The WA further said that if it was not possible for an individual employee to access the mailbox via a private device, it must enable these employees to access and print the documents at work.  

The BAG ruled that the employer had complied with its obligation. The law required employers to provide the remuneration statement in text form. Posting the required digital payslip to an employee mailbox satisfied this requirement. It was sufficient if the employer provided the statement to an electronic issuing point. This did not require the employee’s consent. 

The digital provision of payslips did not disproportionately interfere with the rights of employees as the employer, by establishing a mailbox, had taken into account employees who did not have the possibility of private online access.

This is a helpful clarification for employers and should inform discussions when negotiating future works agreements.   

This is a high level general update only. Legal advice should be obtained on specific circumstances.