Sind Bilder von Mitarbeitern auf der Firmen Webseite erlaubt?

For many companies, an online presence is extremely important. Many employers are striving to introduce their teams and work processes in order to improve the relationship of trust with customers. However, the publication of employee pictures or videos is subject to strict data protection regulations.
The Federal Labor Court (BAG) has dealt with some of these data protection aspects in two fundamental decisions in recent months. The main issues involved were the following legal questions:

Under what circumstances is it permissible to publish employee photos or videos on the company's website?

Under what conditions can the employee concerned request the removal of the images?

Essentially, the BAG has Decisions from December 11, 2014 – 8 AZR 1010/13 as well as from 02/19/2015 – 8 AZR 1011/13 clarified that portraits of employees in which employees are clearly depicted may only be published on the company's website after appropriate and written consent. The court also found that such consent does not automatically expire after the employee leaves. According to the Erfurt judges, the employee is only entitled to demand the removal of the images if he can provide a plausible reason for this. In its most recent decisions, the court rejected the former employee's baseless request for the images or videos to be removed.
The BAG’s opinion is to be welcomed. Until now, the legal opinion has often been represented in the literature that the employee can demand the removal of the portraits as soon as they have left the company. The person concerned did not have to give a reason. The BAG did not agree with this view and only considers the employee's claim to be justified if he can provide a plausible reason for it. The court's justification was, among other things, that due to the high fluctuation in many - especially larger - companies, it would be unreasonable for the employers concerned to remove elaborately produced videos immediately after an employee leaves. For this reason, too, the employee has a duty of consideration towards his (former) employer, which continues even after the employment relationship has ended. Due to this obligation, former employees cannot unreasonably request that their own photos or video recordings be removed from the website. In such cases, the employee's right to their own image must be given up because the company's interests prevail.
This means that the employee who has left cannot demand the removal of the portraits without justification. However, such publication is only permitted if lawful consent has been given. Due to the practical relevance of this issue, which should not be underestimated, we take the BAG's decisions as an opportunity to briefly describe the case law requirements for effective consent in accordance with Sections 22 and 23 KUG in conjunction with the requirements of the BDSG. Employers should pay close attention to these requirements.
Consent must be given as follows:
determined and occasion-related,
If the image or video recording of an employee is not just an “accessory” and the individual employee is also removed from their anonymity, the employee must give specific, specific consent. The jurisprudence checks whether the employee was clearly informed of the reason and whether the employee was informed about the type and extent of the use of the images.
voluntarily
The employee must also have voluntarily agreed to the publication. In this context, it should be noted that the BAG made it clear that in such cases, consent can generally be assumed to be voluntary, as long as there is no evidence to the contrary.
and in writing
The court also made it clear that the employee must give consent in writing. Such a formal requirement does not arise directly from the relevant regulation, Section 22 KUG. However, the judges derive this from Section 4 Paragraph 1 Sentence 3 BDSG.