The employer may request the credit data of a job applicant or an employee only if the duties in question require special reliability and involve the possibility to seek unlawful financial benefits. The duties must also involve the following:

• which include decision-making power or independent discretionary power to make significant financial commitments
• in which the task is to issue and monitor financially significant credits
• for the fulfilment of which the employer grants access to the employer’s or its customer’s protected business or professional secrets
• the fulfilment of which requires access rights to an information system enabling the user to transfer the employer’s or its customer’s funds or to modify the related data
• which fundamentally consist of handling money, securities or valuables in quantities of significant value, without direct supervision
• which consist of guarding the employer’s or its customer’s property
• where their nature principally involves unsupervised work in a private home.

The employer is liable for the costs of obtaining information

Primarily, a credit report should be acquired from the employee. The employer is only allowed to request credit data for a job applicant already selected for the job or an existing employee transferring to different job duties. The employee must be notified that the job in question involves a credit data check.

The employer is liable for the costs incurred through acquiring the credit data, even if the employee provides the credit report at the employer’s request. If the employer acquires credit data, the employee must be informed from which register the data was retrieved.

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