Employer may provide payslips digitally

In accordance with Section 108 (1) sentence 1 of the German Industrial Code (GewO), the employer must provide the employee with a statement of account in text form upon payment of remuneration. In principle, the employer can also fulfill this obligation by posting the statement as an electronic document for retrieval in a password-protected digital employee mailbox.

The plaintiff is employed as a salesperson in the defendant’s retail business. For the group of companies to which the defendant belongs, the group works agreement on the introduction and use of a digital employee mailbox dated April 7, 2021, stipulates that all personnel documents, in particular payslips, are made available via an external provider in a digital employee mailbox and can be accessed by employees via password-protected online access. If it is not possible for employees to access the documents stored in the digital employee mailbox via a private device, the employer must enable them to view and print out the documents at the company. On the basis of the group works agreement, the defendant only made payslips available electronically from March 2022. The plaintiff objected to this and demanded that she continue to receive statements in paper form.

The Regional Labor Court upheld the action by which the plaintiff sought the issue of the payslips. It assumed that the payslips had not been properly issued to her by posting them on the online portal. Remuneration statements are declarations that require access. A digital employee mailbox was only suitable as a receiving device if the recipient – unlike the plaintiff in the case in dispute – had intended it for the receipt of declarations in legal and business transactions.

The defendant’s appeal was successful before the Ninth Senate of the Federal Labor Court. It led to the case being referred back to the Regional Labor Court.

If the employer issues payslips by uploading them to a digital employee mailbox, it generally complies with the text form prescribed by Section 108 (1) sentence 1 GewO. An employee’s entitlement to a payslip is a so-called “debt to be discharged at source”, which the employer can fulfill without being responsible for the receipt of the payslip by the employee. It is sufficient for the employer to provide the statement at an electronic distribution point. In doing so, the employer must take into account the legitimate interests of employees who do not have the option of online access in their private lives.

The digital provision of payslips regulated in the group works agreement within the scope of Section 87 (1) No. 6 BetrVG does not disproportionately interfere with the rights of the employees concerned. However, the Senate is prevented from reaching a final decision because no findings have yet been made as to whether the introduction and operation of the digital employee mailbox falls within the remit of the Group Works Council.

Federal Labor Court, judgment of January 28, 2025 – 9 AZR 48/24 –
Lower instance: Higher Labor Court of Lower Saxony, judgment of January 16, 2024 – 9 Sa 575/23 –