ERFURT (dpa-AFX) - Members of closed chat groups on the Internet can rely on the protection of confidentiality in the case of racist remarks or insults of work colleagues only in exceptional cases. They can be threatened with extraordinary dismissal if inhumane polemics become public, ruled the Federal Labor Court on Thursday in Erfurt (2 AZR 17/23) in the case of a WhatsApp group at the Tui subsidiary Tuifly in Lower Saxony. An expectation of confidentiality would depend on the nature of the messages and the size of the group.

In the case, Germany's highest labor judges dealt for the first time with the question of whether a small WhatsApp group is a kind of protected, private space in which confidentiality applies and insults or insults can be exchanged without sanctions under labor law. According to experts, the case law on defamatory statements in closed groups of messaging services has so far been inconsistent in Germany./red/DP/stw