Determining the location of employees is part of technical supervision, which is possible if the employer has an appropriate basis and need for it. Locating employees can be justified by, for example, ensuring the safety of employees and the correct allocation of resources (such as vehicles).
In the opinion of the Data Protection Ombudsman, location data should not, as a rule, be used for the monitoring of obligations under labour law, such as the monitoring of working hours. Using location data for monitoring and keeping track of working hours can be possible, however, if the employee works at home or mostly away from the employer’s premises and there are no other, less intrusive means of monitoring available.
If the positioning system is intended to be used for monitoring and keeping track of working hours, the employer should specify this as one of the purposes of the processing of location data. If this purpose has not been specified in advance and no cooperation procedure has been implemented on the matter at the workplace, the location data may not be used for monitoring compliance with the terms of the employment or service relationship.