Privacy notice for Employment Information

What do we use the information for?

Employment Services collects, processes and holds East Riding of Yorkshire Council workforce personal information in order to provide our services effectively. 

• To manage the relationship between the Council and employees and casual workers
• To ensure that jobs  are paid correctly and on time for work undertaken
• To make statutory payments (such as pension contribution, for sickness and maternity/ paternity)
• To produce reports on employees and casual workers for a variety of purposes, including improving data quality within IT systems, monitoring the number and composition of the workforce in terms of gender etc. We do this to build a picture of the workforce, to make processes more efficient, to inform recruitment and retention policies and to allow better financial modelling and planning. 

We do not include personal data that would allow the identification of individual employees or casual workers in these reports unless this is required. 

You are required by statutory and contractual obligation to provide personal data to the council that will allow us to carry out our duties as your employer.

We recognise that your personal information is important to you, and we take our responsibilities for ensuring that we collect and manage it proportionately, correctly and safely very seriously.

What information do we hold and use?

Employment Services collect and process the following personal information relating to employees and casual workers:

• Personal details ( including full name, full residential address, dates of birth) 
• Contact details (such as email address, telephone number)
• Characteristics (such as ethnicity, nationality, sex, marital status, disability)
• Identifiable information (including NI number)
• Employment details (such as current and previous job roles held with the council)
• Bank details for payments
• Details of all payments made in respect of salary (including records of statutory documents issued such as P60 and P11D)
• Pension scheme details (including records of employee and employer contributions)
• Records of any other financial arrangements (such as salary sacrifice agreements, loans)
• Information from the recruitment process (including application forms, references)
• Details of criminal record checks where applicable
• Information relating to ongoing or repeat checks to meet statutory or contractual requirements to confirm continued suitability for employment including right to work in the UK, driving license validity, professional registration, criminal record checks and COVID-19 vaccination or exemption status etc.
• Equalities monitoring information, including information about your age, gender, marital status, ethnic origin and disability status.
  
• Performance information (such as records of Employee Development Reviews (EDRs), disciplinary, grievance)
• Absence information including holidays and sick days etc 
• Information related to management of the employment relationship (such as records of sickness case reviews, changes to personal details, terms and conditions of employment) 
• Records relating to leaving employment with the Council  such as resignation, retirement, dismissal and TUPE processes including all associated payments and P45 records
• Induction and training records
• Health and Safety information (such as accident records)
• Pre-employment medical declarations, assessments to advise on adjustments to workplace/duties, health surveillance records or as a result of referrals during employment. 

On what grounds do we use the information?

Employment Services collects and lawfully process your personal information under the following legislation: 

• Teachers Pensions Regulation H3(2)
• NHS Pension Scheme
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Disclosure and Information) Regulations 2013
• Pensions Act 2011 (Transitional, Consequential and Supplementary Provisions) Regulations 2014
• Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Disclosure and Information) Regulations 2015
• Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) Regulations 2013

We process personal data for the following reasons:

• GDPR Article 6(1)(a) – the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes 
• GDPR Article 6(1)(b) – processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract
• GDPR Article 6(1)(c) – processing is necessary for compliance with legal obligation to which the East Riding of Yorkshire Council is subject
• GDPR Article 6(1)(f) - processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the controller or by a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require protection of personal data, in particular where the data subject is a child.

We process special category data for the following reason:

• GDPR Article 9(2)(a) - the data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of those personal data for one or more specified purposes, except where Union or Member State law provide that the prohibition referred to in paragraph 1 may not be lifted by the data subject
• GDPR Article 9(2)(b) - processing is necessary for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller or of the data subject in the field of employment and social security and social protection law in so far as it is authorised by Union or Member State law or a collective agreement pursuant to Member State law providing for appropriate safeguards for the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject
• GDPR Article 9(2)(d) - processing is carried out in the course of its legitimate activities with appropriate safeguards by a foundation, association or any other not-for-profit body with a political, philosophical, religious or trade union aim and on condition that the processing relates solely to the members or to former members of the body or to persons who have regular contact with it in connection with its purposes and that the personal data are not disclosed outside that body without the consent of the data subjects.

We use your personal information for employment purposes to ensure you are paid correctly and that the council fulfils its statutory obligations as an employer.  For example, the council needs to retain records to show that the correct documents have been seen for all employees and workers to evidence the right to work in the UK and to show that criminal record checks have been completed for specified job roles to comply with safeguarding legislation and contractual requirements for repeat checks. For job roles involving frontline Health and Social Care or undertaking any form of work in Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered care homes, the council will seek information about COVID-19 vaccination or exemption status.  This is necessary to ensure the council is complying with health or social care and public health interests, or the Health and Social Care Act 2008 relating to particular posts or service provision. 

We may process information about whether or not employees or workers require reasonable adjustments where they have a disability or health condition. This is to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

We processes data including information about age, gender, marital status, ethnic origin and disability status, for statutory equalities monitoring purposes.

During employment, we will process any changes to personal data that you provide such as changes to name, address, bank details etc and any changes to job role to enable us to pay you correctly.  

We will process data to allow us to make statutory payments as required for sickness, maternity/paternity leave etc.

We process data relating to performance, attendance, grievance, redeployment, redundancy etc to allow us to manage the employment relationship in a consistent and fair way in compliance with council policies.

We have a statutory requirement under Teachers Pensions Regulation H3(2) to provide data relating to historic pension contribution and employment details for those employees or workers who have contributed to the teachers pension scheme during employment until they reach pensionable age. The council also has similar duties with regard to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) and NHS Pension Scheme for those employees or workers who have contributed to the LGPS during employment.  

We will also use your employment information to respond to queries from HM Revenues and Customs (HMRC) regarding tax and national insurance contributions.

We may also need to process data from employees or workers to respond to any legal claims (e.g. Employment Tribunal and insurance). 

We do not use automated decision-making in processing employment information.

How do we collect this information?

We may collect information in the following ways: 

• Data may be contained within application forms, obtained from your passport or driving licence or other identity documents produced for the purpose of carrying out an identity, right to work in the UK or criminal record check, or documents confirming qualifications or professional registration or COVID-19 vaccination or exemption status or information collected through interviews or other forms of assessment.   
• Via third parties such as referees, providers of services to verify documents, right to work in the UK, qualifications, professional registration or restrictions/sanctions on work and the disclosure and barring service.
• We ask you to provide your bank details and information allowing us to obtain your HMRC tax code at appointment stage and we will collect information you provide during employment when you inform us of changes to personal data such as name, address, bank details etc.  We may also receive information from external agencies relating to student loans and court orders that we are required to deduct from salary payments.
• Via forms you complete during employment to be considered for allowances, salary sacrifice arrangements, loans or other employee or worker benefits that need to be assessed against eligibility criteria and we will run data quality reports to identify and correct data.
• During employment we will receive information from third parties such as HMRC, pension providers and providers of services for checks which need to be repeated due to either a statutory or contractual requirement such as driving licence validity checks, right to work in the UK checks, professional registration and criminal record checks.
• We collect information at pre-appointment stage in a medical declaration or health and medical questionnaire to allow us to consider reasonable adjustments due to a disability or learning difference. Additional health and wellbeing information may be collected during employment by managers, people services, occupational health, during EDRs or referrals for advice and information will be collected from fit notes when you are sick.  Health surveillance records are also collected for those working in relevant job roles e.g. where there is the potential for exposure to vibrating machinery.  Where required we will collect information pre-employment about COVID-19 vaccination or exemption status, and this will continue during employment as required.
• Maternity/paternity information will be collected from the MATB1 certificate and forms you are asked to complete when claiming these statutory benefits.
• A record of performance information will be created at EDR by your manager.
• Records will be created for any actions taken under council policy in relation to employment for example, attendance case reviews, disciplinary, capability processes etc. Where audio recordings will be made, you will be informed of this prior to the meeting.
• Information will be collected via accident form relating to any accidents taking place at work. 

Who do we share your information with?

We may disclose your information to others, but only where this is necessary either to comply with our legal obligations or as permitted by Data Protection legislation. We may share it with other public service bodies including HM Revenue and Customs, pension providers, the police, the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), benefits agencies, the Department for Education and other local authorities. 

The reasons why we may share your data with other public bodies are as follows:

• To protect vulnerable adults who may be at risk of harm or abuse
• To obtain employee references’ or to confirm things such as continuous service dates
• If relevant to safeguarding concerns
• To monitor and improve our performance and delivery of services
• For the prevention and or detection of crime
• Where necessary to protect individuals from the risk of harm or injury
• Where otherwise permitted under the General Data Protection legislation.

Please note, Employment Services may transfer your data outside the European Economic Area (EEA), for example when making reference requests to former employers who are based outside the EEA.

We will only disclose your sensitive or confidential information, such as medical details to a third party, if we are legally required to do so, or where we have good reason to believe that failing to share the information would put you or someone else at risk of harm.

We will not pass your personal information to external organisations for marketing or sales purposes or for any commercial use without your prior expressed consent.

How long do we store it and is it secure?

We have a retention schedule in place to ensure that information is only held for as long as it is needed. We will not keep your information for longer than is required to by law. Your information will be disposed of in a controlled and secure manner in accordance with the council’s Records Management and Data Quality Policy. The council’s IT security and confidentiality policies ensure that your information is protected, and accessed only by staff directly involved in your case.  

For information on how long your information will be held visit the retention page. 

What rights do you have?

The rights that you have depend upon the grounds in which your information is collected. All of the rights you could have are outlined on the data protection rights page. 

In most cases, people who have been involved in a recruitment process will have the following rights:

• The right of access - you are entitled to see the information that we hold about you.  
• The right to rectification -  we will amend information accordingly, if any information  the service holds about you is incorrect
• The right to restrict processing -  you may wish to limit how we use your data 
• The right to object - in addition to the right to limit the use of your data, you also have a right to object to the use of your data for certain actions  
• The right to erasure/ right to be forgotten - in certain circumstances, you may be able to ask for some of the information we hold to be deleted. The service has determined that all requests to permanently delete a service user record will be dealt with on an individual basis.

To exercise any of your above rights, please visit the data protection rights page for more information.

Where can I find out more?

If you want to know more about how the council uses information, your rights or have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, we request that you raise your concern with us in the first instance; contact details are available on the general privacy information page. Alternatively, you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The ICO is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest and they handle public concerns regarding organisations information rights practices. 

Information Commissioner’s Office (external website)

When was this privacy notice last updated?

We will continually review and update this privacy notice to reflect any changes in our services, feedback from customers, and to comply with any changes in the law. This privacy notice was last updated on 7 October 2021.