Employee privacy policy

1 Council Contact Details

1.1 North Northants Council
Registered Office:
Sheerness House
41 Meadow Road
Kettering
NN16 8TL

www.northnorthants.gov.uk

1.2 This privacy notice describes how we collect and use personal information about you during and after your working relationship with us, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

It applies to all employees, workers and contractors.

The Council is a "data controller". This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.

The Council collects and processes personal data relating to its employees to manage the employment relationship (often referred to as the performance of a contract and/or compliance with a legal obligation). The Council is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses your data and to meeting its data protection obligations.

2 Information that we hold

2.1 The Council collects and processes a range of information about you.

This includes:

your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number, date of birth and gender;
the terms and conditions of your employment;
details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history, including start and end dates, with previous employers and with the Council;
information about your remuneration, including entitlement to benefits such as pensions;
details of your bank account and national insurance number;
information about your marital status, next of kin, dependants and emergency contacts;
information about your nationality and entitlement to work in the UK;
information about your criminal record (where applicable);
details of your schedule (days of work and working hours) and attendance at work;
details of periods of leave taken by you such as holiday, sickness absence, family leave and sabbaticals, and the reasons for the leave
details of any disciplinary or grievance procedures in which you have been involved, including any warnings issued to you and related correspondence;
assessments of your performance, including appraisals, performance reviews, training you have participated in, performance improvement plans and related correspondence;
information about medical or health conditions, including whether or not you have a disability for which the Council needs to make reasonable adjustments;
details of trade union membership; and
equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about your ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health and religion or belief.

You have some obligations under your employment contract to provide the Council with data. In particular, you are required to report absences from work and may be required to provide information about disciplinary or other matters under the implied duty of good faith. You may also have to provide the Council with data in order to exercise your statutory rights, such as in relation to statutory leave entitlements. Failing to provide the data may mean that you are unable to exercise your statutory rights.

Certain information, such as contact details, your right to work in the UK and payment details, have to be provided to enable the Council to enter a contract of employment with you. If you do not provide other information, this will hinder the Council's ability to administer the rights and obligations arising as a result of the employment relationship efficiently.

3 How the information is obtained

3.1 The Council collects this information in a variety of ways. For example, data is collected through application forms, obtained from your passport or other identity documents such as your driving licence; from forms completed by you at the start of or during employment; from correspondence with you; or through interviews, meetings or other assessments.

The Council seeks information from third parties with your consent, such as references and criminal records checks (DBS)

3.2 Fair and Lawful Processing

What are the lawful bases for processing?

The lawful bases for processing are set out in Article 6 of the GDPR. At least one of these must apply whenever the Council processes personal data:
(a) Consent: the individual has given clear consent for the Council to process their personal data for a specific purpose.
(b) Contract: the processing is necessary for a contract the Council has with the individual, or because they have asked the Council to take specific steps before entering into a contract.
(c) Legal obligation: the processing is necessary for the Council to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations).
(d) Vital interests: the processing is necessary to protect someone’s life.
(e) Public task: the processing is necessary for you to perform a task in the public interest or for the Council’s official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law.
(f) Legitimate interests: the processing is necessary for the Council’s legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party unless there is a good reason to protect the individual’s personal data which overrides those legitimate interests. (This cannot apply if you are a public authority processing data to perform your official tasks.)

It is possible for more than one of the bases to apply at any time. The Council will frequently be able to rely upon Article 6.1 (b), (c) and (e) as a lawful basis for processing employee personal data.

Where special categories of personal data are processed an additional special category condition is required and these are listed in Article 9 of the GDPR.

These are;
(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;
(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;
(c) processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person where the data subject is physically or legally incapable of giving consent;
(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;
(e) processing relates to personal data which are manifestly made public by the data subject;
(f) processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or whenever courts are acting in their judicial capacity;
(g) processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, on the basis of Union or Member State law which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the essence of the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject;
(h) processing is necessary for the purposes of preventive or occupational medicine, for the assessment of the working capacity of the employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services on the basis of Union or Member State law or pursuant to contract with a health professional and subject to the conditions and safeguards referred to in paragraph 3;
(i) processing is necessary for reasons of public interest in the area of public health, such as protecting against serious cross-border threats to health or ensuring high standards of quality and safety of health care and of medicinal products or medical devices, on the basis of Union or Member State law which provides for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the rights and freedoms of the data subject, in particular professional secrecy;
(j) processing is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes in accordance with Article 89(1) based on Union or Member State law which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the essence of the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject.
When processing special category data the Council would frequently be able to rely upon Article 9.2 (b), (g), (h) and (j).

Information about criminal convictions is not a special category of information under the GDPR. It is safeguarded under Article 10 which states we may only use information relating to criminal convictions where the law allows us to do so. This will usually be where such processing is necessary to carry out our obligations and provided we do so in line with our data protection policy.

The Council must also comply with Schedule 5 of the GDPR which sets out the principles with which data controllers and processors must comply when processing personal data

This says that the personal information we hold about you must be:
(a). Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.
(b). Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.
(c). Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.
(d). Accurate and kept up to date.
(e). Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.
(f). Kept securely.

These requirements are why the Council has drafted this policy. If the policy is unclear to you or you have any queries having read this please raise them with H.R. and we will answer them for you.

4 What we do with the information

4.1 The Council needs to process data to enter into an employment contract with you and to meet its obligations under your employment contract. For example, it needs to process your data to provide you with an employment contract, to pay you in accordance with your employment contract and to administer pension entitlements.

In some cases, the Council needs to process data to ensure that it is complying with its legal obligations. For example, it is required to check an employee's entitlement to work in the UK, to deduct tax, to comply with health and safety laws and to enable employees to take periods of leave to which they are entitled.

For certain positions, it is necessary to carry out criminal records checks to ensure that individuals are permitted to undertake the role in question.

In other cases, the Council has a legitimate interest in processing personal data before, during and after the end of the employment relationship. Processing employee data allows the Council to:

run recruitment and promotion processes;
maintain accurate and up-to-date employment records and contact details (including details of who to contact in the event of an emergency), and records of employee contractual and statutory rights;
operate and keep a record of disciplinary and grievance processes, to ensure acceptable conduct within the workplace;
operate and keep a record of employee performance and related processes, to plan for career development, and for succession planning and workforce management purposes;
operate and keep a record of absence and absence management procedures, to allow effective workforce management and ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled;
obtain occupational health advice, to ensure that it complies with duties in relation to individuals with disabilities, meet its obligations under health and safety law, and ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled;
operate and keep a record of other types of leave (including maternity, paternity, adoption, parental and shared parental leave), to allow effective workforce management, to ensure that the Council complies with duties in relation to leave entitlement, and to ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled;
ensure effective general HR and business administration;
provide references on request for current or former employees;
respond to and defend against legal claims; and
maintain and promote equality in the workplace.

Where the Council relies on legitimate interests as a reason for processing data, it has considered whether or not those interests are overridden by the rights and freedoms of employees or workers and has concluded that they are not.

Some special categories of personal data, such as information about health or medical conditions, is processed to carry out employment law obligations (such as those in relation to employees with disabilities and for health and safety purposes). Information about trade union membership is processed to allow the Council to operate check-off for union subscriptions.

Where the Council processes other special categories of personal data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health or religion or belief, this is done for the purposes of equal opportunities monitoring. Data that the Council uses for these purposes is anonymised or collected with the express consent of employees, and can be withdrawn at any time. Employees are entirely free to decide whether or not to provide such data and there are no consequences of failing to do so.

4.2 Your information will be shared internally, including with members of the HR and payroll teams, your line manager, managers in the business area in which you work, Audit and IT staff, if access to the data is necessary for performance of their roles.

The Council shares your data with third parties in order to obtain pre-employment references from other employers, obtain employment background checks from third-party providers and obtain necessary criminal records checks from the Disclosure and Barring Service.

The Council may also share your data with third parties in the context of a sale of some or all of its business (TUPE). In those circumstances the data will be subject to confidentiality arrangements.

The Council also shares your data with third parties that process data on its behalf in connection the provision of pension, child care vouchers and occupational health services.
The Council will not transfer your data to countries outside the European Economic Area.

4.3 Automated decisions

Automated decision-making takes place when an electronic system uses personal information to make a decision without human intervention. We are allowed to use automated decision-making in the following circumstances:
a. Where we have notified you of the decision and given you 21 days to request a reconsideration.
b. Where it is necessary to perform the contract with you and appropriate measures are in place to safeguard your rights.
c. In limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent and where appropriate measures are in place to safeguard your rights.

If we make an automated decision on the basis of any particularly sensitive personal information, we must have either your explicit written consent or it must be justified in the public interest and we must also put in place appropriate measures to safeguard your rights.
The Council’s only automated decision making is automatic pay increments within a salary grade defined in the employment particulars and automatic increases in other benefits, such as annual leave provisions.

4.4 • [If applicable, include any profiling you undertake.] Profiling is where you analyse parts of an individual’s personality, behaviour, interests and habits to identify their preferences, make predictions or decisions about them.

5 How long we keep your information for and how we securely dispose of it after use

5.1 We keep your personal information for all aspects of processing in line with the council’s retention schedules.

The Council takes the security of your data seriously. The Council has internal policies and controls in place to try to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by its employees in the performance of their duties.

For example, the HR and payroll data base has restricted access, personnel files are stored in locked cabinets with restrictions on access. Data is retained in line with the Council’s document retention policy or as specified in separate polices such as the Council’s Disciplinary Policy.

Where the Council engages third parties to process personal data on its behalf, they do so on the basis of written instructions, are under a duty of confidentiality and are obliged to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security of data.

The periods for which your data is held are set out in:
(a) Specific Policies, such as the Disciplinary or Absence Policy, or
(b) the Council’s Document Retention and Disposal Policy, of which includes:

Pre-employment Data – 2 year’s post termination of employment
Right to work in the UK documentation – 2 year’s post termination of employment
Occupational Health – 1 year
Recruitment – 6 months
Employment Records – 6 year’s post termination
HR/Payroll Database – 6 year’s post termination
Equal Opportunities data – 18 months

5.2 We will securely dispose of your information in line with retention periods.

6 How we store your information

6.1 Data is stored in a range of different places, including in your personnel file, in the Council's HR management systems and in other IT systems (including the Council's email system).

7 Your data protection rights

7.1 The law gives you a number of rights to control what personal information is used by us and how we can use it. Please see section 15 of the council’s Privacy Policy for further information.

7.2 Please be aware that your rights may differ depending on the lawful basis for processing your personal data.

7.3 The right to withdraw consent (if applicable). You can ask that we no longer use your details for this [processing/groups of processing]. If you wish to exercise this right, please contact the Data Protection Officer detailed in section 8.1 below.

8 Who to contact

8.1 If you would like further information about how we use your personal information, or you wish to exercise one of your data rights or you wish to complain about the use of your personal information please contact the Data Protection Officer:
Tel: 0300 126 3000
Email to [email protected]

Or you can write to:
Data Protection Officer
North Northants Council
Cedar Drive
Thrapston
NN14 4LZ

8.2 If you are still dissatisfied once you have contacted the Data Protection Officer, you have the right to complain to the ICO.

The ICO’s address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

9 Changes to this privacy notice

9.1 Privacy notices are live documents, which will be updated or revised in line with legislation.

Last updated 29 April 2022