What information can a bailiff request from the employer as the wage payer?

By NOVINKY

Does it happen to you that, as an employer, i.e. a wage payer, the bailiff summons you provide cooperation and demands, under threat of a fine, that you disclose information concerning an employee against whom enforcement proceedings are being conducted? Often, the request is for contact details, stating that there is a “justified need” to obtain this information in the execution proceedings in question.

In the past, the scope of cooperation that the bailiff may require from the payer of the debtor’s wages (or other income) was not entirely clear. Therefore, in January 2020, the Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic issued an opinion clarifying the issue and stating that the bailiff may only request information necessary for the proper execution of the execution, i.e. whether the obligor has an employment contract, a fixed-term or permanent employment contract, the amount of net wages, the pay date, etc. According to the opinion of the Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic, on the other hand, the bailiff MUST NOT request, for example, the telephone number or e-mail address of the debtor.

! In addition, from 1 January 2022, this is explicitly regulated by Section 33 (5) of the Enforcement Code, which exhaustively defines the scope of mandatory cooperation. The bailiff may request from the employer ONLY:

  • data on wages or other income paid by him,
  • data on deductions from such income,
  • data on the employment relationship of the debtor, the entitlement or right on the basis of which he receives income.

What about the e-mail or phone number of the debtor?

As the above list is closed, the bailiff MUST NOT ask for other data, including contact details. The employer does not have to, or even may not, provide this data to the bailiff, as he himself is bound by regulations on the protection of personal data.