General Terms and Conditions of Business and Use (company cell phone)

Status: 08.04.2024

1. Provision of a smartphone / reclaim

The University of Münster provides the employee with a company cell phone and a SIM card. The condition for the provision of a company cell phone is the consent of an authorized signatory who bears the costs associated with the use of the device. This consent must be obtained from the employee in advance. If the employee requires a more expensive device for work-related reasons, the consent of a person responsible for funds is required to cover the total costs. If the employee is generally entitled to a work mobile phone, he/she also has the option of acquiring permission to use a discounted, higher-quality device at his/her own expense, irrespective of his/her work-related requirements. However, the device remains the property of the University of Münster in all cases.

The connection costs associated with the use of the smartphone are generally borne by the respective department of the University of Münster in which the employee is employed, subject to the conditions and exceptions described in detail below.

Münster University reserves the right to reclaim the company cell phone without compensation.

2. Provisions on the use of the company cell phone

2.1 Business (company) and private use

The business cell phone is intended for business use (telephony, email, internet) by the employee. Private telephone calls are generally not permitted in accordance with the provisions of the Dienstanschlussvorschrift NRW, unless a flat rate has been booked via the respective office of the University of Münster.

2.2 Private use option of the company cell phone/flat rate ("TwinPhone")

At the request of the employee, the contract of use can be converted into a contract with unlimited private use outside working hours, taking into account the special terms of use for stays abroad (see III. below) ("TwinPhone"). This requires the consent of the person responsible for the funds, who bears the costs for the company cell phone.Certain company cell phones may be excluded from the private use option (e.g. devices used as RFID scanners).There is no entitlement to the TwinPhone private use option.

When booking the TwinPhone option, the employee will be charged a monthly lump sum of 20% of the total contract costs. Payment is made monthly by direct debit in favor of the CIT. The account details and direct debit mandate are provided via the IT-Portal. The employee must ensure that there are sufficient funds in the account. For unsuccessful bookings for which the employee is responsible, a processing fee of €10 will be charged in addition to any fees incurred by the bank. If the employed person defaults on payments three times within one year and has to be reminded, they will be permanently excluded from using TwinPhone.

When TwinPhone is booked, the itemized bills sent to the University of Münster are anonymized. If the devices are not administered by the employee him/herself, but by an IT unit of the University of Münster, the employee must make the business cell phone available to the device administrators upon request and protect his/her private data from unwanted access by the device administrators beforehand on his/her own responsibility (e.g. by encryption).
TwinPhone includes a flat rate to the German landline network and all German mobile networks as well as a data volume (1 GB), after which the speed is throttled. The use of the mobile data volume for private purposes must be limited in such a way that there are no restrictions for business use. Special numbers, text messages, incoming and outgoing calls and data roaming abroad as well as calls to foreign networks are not included.

The minimum contract term is three months. TwinPhone can be terminated by the employee with four weeks' notice to the end of the month and ends without separate notice when the employee leaves active service or when the underlying company mobile phone contract ends. In addition, TwinPhone can be terminated by the University of Münster with four weeks' notice to the end of the month.

2.3 Use of the company cell phone during stays abroad

During stays abroad, data transmission (e-mail, Internet, push messages) should only take place via WLAN and data roaming should be deactivated. If use abroad is required for business reasons, prior contact must be made with the CIT for advice on minimizing costs and, if necessary, booking international data tariff options and coordination with the budget/cost centre manager.

2.4 Employee's duty of care/loss of device

In order to protect business data, the recommendations for the business use of mobile devices [de] must be applied. In particular, the company cell phone must be secured with a code lock (PIN). It is prohibited to make the company cell phone and/or SIM card accessible to third parties, to lend it out, etc. The PIN number must be kept secret. The employee shall treat the company cell phone, including accessories, with care and inform the employer immediately of any malfunctions or damage. In the event of a gross breach of the duty of care, the University of Münster may demand compensation.

The loss of the work cell phone must be reported to the CIT immediately and the SIM card must be blocked by calling Telekom on 0800 33 02828. If the synchronization of the official Uni Münster Exchange account has been set up, this data must be deleted as quickly as possible by remote access via Outlook Web Access (remote wipe) in order to protect confidentiality. If the loss of the work cell phone is the result of a criminal offense or if this is suspected in any case, the employee is obliged to report it to the nearest police station. If available, the employee will be provided with a replacement device by the CIT, but is not entitled to an equivalent device.

2.5 Termination of the employment relationship

In the event of termination of the employment relationship, the employee is obliged to inform the CIT immediately and to hand over the company cell phone to the device administrator named in the company mobile phone application or to the CIT for the purpose of secure data erasure. Any device locks must be deactivated beforehand. Otherwise, costs may be incurred to unlock the device at Telekom. These will be charged to the user. If the person employed is the device administrator, they must ensure that the data is deleted or the device is scrapped correctly; in this case, the device becomes their own property. The SIM card must always be returned to the CIT.

The same applies to other cases of termination (e.g. termination agreement); the date on which the declarations relating to the termination of the employment relationship were made is decisive for the obligation to return the device.

2.6 Tax information

It is assumed that when the private use option is booked, the free or discounted use of the company cell phone for (also) private purposes is not taxable as a non-cash benefit. Should the legal situation change in this respect, the employee must bear the taxes triggered by the provision of the company cell phone