Teachers' unions are basing their appeals on the verdict on two new reports.
The teachers' union is starting a new attempt with its model lawsuit against the app “Lernsieg”, in which students can anonymously rate their teachers or schools with one to five stars. An HTL teacher and trade unionist who saw his personal rights violated had sued for injunctive relief or for damages. Both claims were rejected by the Vienna Regional Court for Civil Law Matters at the beginning of February. The union is now appealing.
New legal opinion
According to the top teacher representative Paul Kimberger (FCG), GÖD relies on two new legal opinions on the app. From the point of view of the union, the personal rights of teachers are to be valued much more highly and are accordingly to be protected. In addition, in this case it is not just about the educators, as the ARGE teacher chairman emphasizes. “It will have to be clarified what is possible and permitted on the Internet. Next week it might be the prosecutors or the nurses' turn. “
In addition, there is a very restrictive General Data Protection Regulation, but at the same time teachers have to be rated with asterisks in an undifferentiated manner. “It doesn't fit together for us at all.” In addition to the most recently rejected model lawsuit, there are others.
Students rate teachers
A database with around 90,000 teachers and the corresponding schools was created for the “Lernsieg” app. After registering via mobile phone number, pupils can rate their educators from the AHS lower level or new middle school (NMS) in categories such as teaching, fairness, preparation or punctuality with one to five stars. Rankings are then also created from this. According to the app creators, “Lernsieg” has already been downloaded 400,000 times since it was launched in November 2019.
The teachers' union railed against the app from the start and, among other things, had concerns about data protection and primarily located a “huge mobile phone number collection campaign”. In the current process, the teacher, who, according to the app creators, was rated 2.9 – mediocre -, asserted civil law claims with the support of GÖD, regardless of the data protection side. He sees his personal rights violated.
Regional court dismissed the action
The Vienna Regional Court for Civil Law Matters recently dismissed the lawsuit: the legitimate interest of students, parents and the general public in exercising the fundamental right to freedom of expression and information within the framework of the app outweighs the interests of the plaintiff. The processing of the plaintiff's personal data by “Lernsieg” is therefore a legitimate interest within the meaning of the General Data Protection Regulation.
The data protection authority had already closed proceedings with a similar justification. The court also argued that measures such as phone number verification would counteract the risk of improper ratings. By excluding elementary and special schools, a “certain intellectual maturity” of the users is ensured and it can be assumed that cases of abuse are the exception.
