Since 2018, the digital safe is no longer just an online storage space. It is a legal category governed by the Code of Postal and Electronic Communications, with specific obligations for the employer and guarantees for the employee. Arkevia, one of the most deployed digital safes in French companies, fits within this framework. Understanding what the law imposes, what it protects, and what it does not cover helps avoid several common misunderstandings.
Digital Safe: A Legal Definition Often Ignored by Employees
The 2016 Digital Republic Law, clarified by decree n°2018-418 of May 30, 2018, established a strict definition of the digital safe, codified in article L.103 of the Code of Postal and Electronic Communications. A service can only claim to be a “digital safe” if it meets four cumulative requirements.
- Integrity of Documents: once deposited, a payslip or contract cannot be modified, neither by the employer nor by the service provider.
- Traceability of Operations: each action (deposit, consultation, download) is recorded in a timestamped audit log.
- Strong User Identification: access to the safe requires a strengthened authentication mechanism, not just a generic password.
- Exclusive Access: the safe provider itself cannot view the documents in plain text. The encryption key remains controlled by the user or their representative.
For an employee, the direct consequence is that their employer can no longer correct or alter a payslip after it has been deposited in the safe. This guarantee distinguishes a true digital safe from a simple shared drive or HR intranet. Before using the Arkevia safe in the company, it is useful to verify that the service indeed meets this legal definition, and not just a marketing promise of “security.”
Employer Obligations When Transitioning to Digital Payslips
Deploying Arkevia in a company is not just about activating software. The Labor Code imposes several obligations on the employer before replacing the paper payslip with a digital version.
Prior Information and Employee Right to Object
The employer must inform each employee individually about the implementation of the electronic payslip. This information must be communicated at least one month before the first digital dispatch. The employee retains a permanent right to object: they can request a return to paper format at any time, without having to justify their decision.
This right is often misunderstood. Some employees believe that once the safe is activated, the choice is irreversible. This is not the case. An employer who refuses to provide a paper payslip to an employee who requests it is in violation.
Retention and Portability After Leaving the Company
The employer is required to ensure the availability of documents for a long duration. In the case of Arkevia, payslips remain accessible for fifty years or until the employee turns seventy-five. This point is crucial for career reconstruction and retirement rights, which sometimes require evidence covering several decades.
The safe remains accessible after leaving the company. The employee retains their personal space with their own credentials, independent of their former employer. However, if the employee has never activated their account, the documents deposited by the employer remain pending in the safe, but their accessibility depends on the subsequent activation of the account.
Concrete Rights of the Employee Regarding Their Arkevia Space
The legal framework of the digital safe grants the employee rights that go beyond merely consulting payslips.
The employee can add their own documents to their safe: identification documents, certificates, training records, etc. These personal documents are only visible to them. The employer has no access, even if they initiated the opening of the safe.
The employer can only see the documents they have deposited, and only as long as the contractual relationship justifies it from an HR perspective. The employee, on the other hand, has unrestricted access to their entire safe.
Retrieving documents is another guaranteed right. The employee can download all their files at any time, in a standard format (PDF). In the event of service closure or a change of provider by the employer, a portability mechanism must allow the employee to retrieve their data or transfer it to another certified safe.
Limits and Gray Areas of the Arkevia System
The legal framework establishes clear principles, but their concrete application raises questions that the texts do not fully resolve.
The first concerns responsibility in the event of data loss. If the safe provider experiences a major technical incident, who is responsible towards the employee: the employer who chose the provider, or the provider themselves? Field feedback varies on this point, and service contracts do not always clearly specify the distribution of responsibilities.
The second gray area affects employees who leave a company without ever having activated their safe. Documents are deposited by the employer, but the employee has never created their credentials. In this case, the recovery process can be complex, especially if several years have passed.
The third point: GDPR compliance. Arkevia hosts its data in France and applies encryption that meets the requirements of the European regulation. The employee has a right of access, rectification, and deletion regarding their personal data. Deleting a personal document is possible, but deleting a payslip deposited by the employer is not, as this document has legal evidentiary value that the employee cannot unilaterally erase.
The digital safe in the company effectively protects the employee when the legal framework is respected and the account is activated upon hiring. The employer’s obligations are precise, and the employee’s rights are extensive. The main fragility of the system remains human: an unactivated safe protects nothing.
