Court upholds police employee’s dismissal over data access

Austria’s Innsbruck Higher Regional Court has upheld the dismissal of a civilian employee of the Vorarlberg police who accessed a colleague’s job application records without authorisation and gave her partner access to a work computer, ORF reported.

The employee repeatedly opened her competitor’s application file in the police records system between Christmas 2022 and early January 2023. She viewed documents including the application letter and career record, without any work-related reason. Most of the access took place outside working hours.

Investigators also found that she had repeatedly let her partner into the police workplace and, on one occasion, enabled him to use a work computer. She was logged into two computers at once using her password. The court said this could have allowed an unauthorised person to access sensitive information, including personnel data and wanted-person information. It did not find that her partner actually viewed any data.

The employee, who had worked as a civilian member of the police since July 2003, was dismissed in January 2023. She sued the Republic of Austria for about 13,400 euros in compensation, holiday pay and special payments. The Feldkirch Regional Court rejected her claim, and the Innsbruck court has now upheld that decision.

The court cited several earlier warnings, including for leaving work without permission, failing to forward an application, making private calls during working hours and not reporting a secondary job. It found that her conduct was a serious breach of duty and that her attempts to play down her actions showed a lack of insight. Given the seriousness of the conduct, another warning was not required, the court said.

The court also rejected her argument that the police should have better protected the application records with technical safeguards. It said the employer’s duty of care did not require it to prevent every improper act by staff. The dismissal was also issued in time.

The court said it could not verify most of the Supreme Court rulings cited in the employee’s appeal because they could not be found in the federal legal database. It noted that the citations may have been AI-generated. The employee must also pay about 1,400 euros in appeal costs. The court did not allow a regular appeal to the Supreme Court.