Data Protection Policy

For the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018 you consent to the Company holding and processing personal data including sensitive personal data of which you are the subject. This includes your consent to the reasonable operation of CCTV for the purposes of crime prevention and detection, and other appropriate uses.

The kinds of data that the Company processes in connection with you are:

Any references obtained during recruitment
Payroll details
Details of health and sickness absence records
Contact names, addresses and telephone numbers of third parties connected to you e.g. next of kin.

You may make application for copies of the information that the Company holds on you by complying with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018, which includes paying a fee of £10.00.

Data Protection Generally
It is generally accepted that as employers we need to hold personal information on our employees. Personal information may include, marital status, place of birth and may also include personal details about our employees’ family. We need to retain this information whilst you are employed but there may also be a requirement to hold some of this information beyond the termination of employment (i.e. for payroll and reference purposes).

We are required by law to meet certain obligations when processing or using employees’ personal information or when monitoring their acts/communications. With regard to data protection, the conduct for employers to follow is contained in the Employment Practice Data Protection Code.

THE DP CODES OF PRACTICE is intended to assist employers and to establish good practices for the handling of personal data in the workplace. The four parts of the code are:

Recruitment and Selection – This concerns processing records, checking the accuracy of applications, and pre-employment vetting
Employment Records – About the collection, storage, disclosure, and deletion of personnel records
Monitoring At Work – Covers the monitoring of worker’s use of telephone, email systems, and vehicles
Medical Information – About occupational health, medical testing, drug, and genetic screening.

Data Protection
When personal information is collected, used, or stored we have an obligation to protect that information from being improperly used or distributed. Individuals have the right to know what information is being held and the reasons why. The data protection principles apply whenever personal data or sensitive data is processed.

THE DATA PROTECTION PRINCIPLES

These are essentially principles of good business practice in relation to the collection, use and storage of data. The principles are:

PROCESSING DATA

“Processing” of personal data means obtaining, recording, or holding information or data for carrying out any operation including organisation, retrieval, use, disclosure, erasure, or destruction of data. This also includes the expression of opinion concerning individuals.

Rights of Data Subjects
Individuals are entitled to be given a description of the data, the purposes for which they are being processed and the recipients to whom they are or may be disclosed. To access personal files or data held on the Company’s database the following procedure must be adhered to: –

All requests for access to information must be in writing and addressed to Personnel.
Any employee requesting information must give a minimum of two weeks’ notice in writing.
The Personal Data Request — internal form (see appendices section) must be completed in full.
Request for information via a third party must contain a signed authorisation from the employee.
Personal files/data will be photocopied and will be provided 20 days after receipt of the request and sent by registered post to the address as stated on the Personal Data Request form.
Anyone wishing to view their original file must give the required notice and be responsible for their own costs for travel to and from Personnel department and this must be in their own time and not Company time.

Exemptions To The Right Of Access – References
Personal data consisting of a reference given in confidence in connection with the employment, education, or training of the data subject may be exempt. The most common request is for access to references given by some other person, usually previous employers.

We are not obliged to comply with such a request if in giving the information we will be disclosing information relating to another identifiable individual (i.e. the person giving the reference) who has not given his consent. In dealing with requests for copies of references given by previous employers, the duty to give information should be balanced with the need to protect the identity of the referee.

If necessary ask the person giving the reference whether they consent to a copy being given to the subject of the reference.

Monitoring Of Telephone Calls & Email Correspondence
There may at times be very good reasons for monitoring telephone calls or monitoring emails. This will only be carried out where it is deemed necessary either for training or quality control purposes and to ensure that as employees you are complying with company policies, procedures and legal requirements, health and safety rules or discrimination rules. Monitoring is not intended to intrude on the privacy of the employee.

Occasional personal use of email is permitted provided this does not interfere with your normal duties.

Data Protection Temporary Workers
As a recruitment company, we will hold large amounts of candidates' personal data; therefore, the basic principles need to be observed. We must only use their data for the purposes intended. As candidates register it is therefore obvious that they do so, to enable us to seek temporary or permanent work on their behalf and will be happy for us to send their details to prospective employers. This may be limited to one single employer therefore if you intend to send their details to other potential employers you should make this clear and ask if they object.

It is always better to ask a candidate when interviewing them to allow us to disclose information to respective employers or workers. A note should be made to this effect on the application form or CV.

Access To Data
Candidates are entitled to receive copies of any data about them. This will also include references received about them, but care should be taken not to reveal the identity of the individual giving the reference. If a verbal reference is obtained the DPA does not apply therefore you will not be required to divulge the information given to you in answer to a subject access request.

Candidates requiring access to their personal data must in each case adhere to the following procedure:

All requests for access to information must be in writing and addressed to their host branch/office/department manager.
Any temporary/permanent candidate requesting information must give a minimum of two weeks’ notice in writing.
The Personal Data Request – Candidates form must be completed in full.
Requests for information via a third party must contain a signed authorisation from the temporary/permanent candidate.
Personal files/data should be photocopied, provided no later than 20 days after receipt of request and sent by registered post to the address as stated on the Personal Data Request form, or directly given to candidate.

Disposal of Data
Once data reaches its disposal date as required by legislation we may dispose of records as given below. There may be instances when we need to keep certain records for longer, especially in cases where the candidate has had an accident whilst working for a client and could possibly bring some form of claim against either the client or ourselves. In these cases, we must ensure that full records are kept.

The Conduct Regulations state that application forms and CV’s of candidates must be kept for at least one year from the date of their creation and at least one year after the date on which you last provided services to the client or the candidate.

The Asylum & Immigration Act states that copies of any documents (Passport & Right to Work Visa’s) must be kept for at least three years after they have ceased working.

Curriculum Vitae

1 year after placing the candidate in a permanent job or
1 year after the last date we actively sought employment on their behalf
CVs never actively worked on can be destroyed at the discretion of the branch manager; there is no legal limit for the date of disposal.

Application Forms – Permanent Candidates

1 year after placing the candidate in a permanent job or
1 year after the last date we actively sought employment on their behalf
Applications never actively worked on can be destroyed at the discretion of the branch manager; there is no legal limit for date of disposal.

Application Forms – Temporary Candidates

1 year after their last working date
1 year after the last date we actively sought employment on their behalf
Applications never actively worked on can be destroyed at the discretion of the branch manager; there is no legal limit for date of disposal.

Blacklisted Temporary Workers
To ensure we do not inadvertently send a blacklisted temporary back to a client because their application form was disposed of at the appropriate time, files or information for blacklisted temporaries should be held indefinitely. The term ‘blacklisted’ is only used to refer to workers who an employer will not employ for lawful reasons.

Exemptions From Compliance With The Act
Part IV of the Act sets out circumstances where certain parts of the Act do not apply. These include:

Safeguarding national security
The prevention or detection of crime
Apprehension or prosecution of offenders
The assessment or collection of any tax or duty

In the event that you receive an enquiry from the Police, Inland Revenue or Social Security, providing you have ascertained it is a genuine enquiry (i.e. take their name, telephone number, job title etc.) you may provide the information requested.

Please Remember
All information we hold on candidates is accessible to them. Please ensure that no comments that could be interpreted as discriminatory, RACIST, SEXIST, DEROGATORY or personal information should EVER be noted anywhere on any form.