Troubled Takeover

There seems to be yet more trouble in the South West according to the following from a reader:-

Dear members

Please read the following joint Union message:

Unions raise concerns over employers DBS assessment requests

Local Branch Officials from Napo/UNISON/GMB have been inundated with requests from members for advice about the recent request issued by KSS CRC/SEETEC. This seeks staff permission to undertake a new DBS assessment and provide authority for further checks to be carried out in relation to wide ranging and comprehensive personal data. These include: 

• Employment history
• Education
• Professional Qualifications
• Membership of professional organisations
• Character and professional references
• Asking staff to confirm that information provided can be subject to further verification
• Providing background information for new criminal and credit record checks
• Association with Credit Agencies or Government organisations
• Authority requests of staff to sign off permissions that include driving records checks and personal financial data.
• Confirmation that staff are content for this sensitive material to be shared across European partners and others organisations

Our concerns

Yet again, the employer has launched a sensitive communication without consultation with the unions. In the absence of a number of reassurances we remain to be convinced that some of these requests do not breach many of our members individual rights to privacy and the right to data security. The Unions have no further information other than the vague assurances in the letter to staff, but given the difficulties that we were alerted to at the time of KSS CRC taking the place of Working Links (where personal files were stacked in boxes in Middlesbrough), this is not a reference that can be relied upon.

The unions have had no consultation with the employer about why they are seeking this information which appears to go above and beyond what is actually necessary. Staff reading the list of intended inquiries and the scope for third party involvement have relayed their shock and disbelief at the level of invasive checking, including the need to produce passports and domestic bills as a form of identification.

We will be urgently raising the issue with the employer and until we receive a satisfactory explanation, we must remind members that they are under no obligation to provide this material afresh as it should already be in your established online data records. If this has been lost between employers then this is a serious issue.

The unions have had no assurances about where and how this information is to be revealed and remain doubtful that this request is compliant with the existing General Data Protection legislation.

The GDPR legislation sets out seven key principles:

• Lawfulness, fairness and transparency.
• Purpose limitation.
• Data minimisation.
• Accuracy.
• Storage limitation.
• Integrity and confidentiality (security)
• Accountability

We also intend to ask the employer to explain why, when relevant record checks last up to 4 years for a standard DBS, they need to conduct this exercise. We will be writing to the employer to record our concerns and we will also be considering the potential for a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office on behalf of the staff affected.

We will also remind the employer of the additional costs involved in this process especially as the employer has claimed that it does not have the resources to improve upon their recently imposed pay award.

The unions will be issuing further information to members at the earliest opportunity.

Meanwhile, and as a self-protection measure, the unions recommend that all members withhold their permission for these checks to be carried out until further clarity has been provided.

Ian Lawrence, General Secretary, Napo
Siobhan Brown/Simon Dunn/Debbie Monksfield, Regional Organisers, UNISON
Helen Coley, Regional Officer, GMB/SCOOP