The Office for the Information Commissioner ("OIC") has issued the first
part of the Employment Practices Data Protection Code on its website at www.dataprotection.gov.uk,
Although the Code is primarily directed at businesses " where the employment
of staff constitutes a significant activity" much of the code (and most of
the Data Protection Act 1998 ("the Act") will be applicable to every employer
in the UK, whether registered under the Act or not.
The Code is being issued in 4 parts over the coming months; the first part
deals with Data Protection issues in the area of Recruitment and selection
of employees.
The Act itself sets out the legal requirements on Employers; the Code
provides benchmarks against which employment practices will be judged by the
OIC and, in all likelihood, by the Courts and Tribunals.
Any Employer failing to deal appropriately with Data Protection Issues in
relation to its employees may end up with legal ( even criminal ) liability
and officers managers and directors are open to action alongside the
employer in some cases.
Read Hind Stewart and Cobbetts - two commercial firms of Solicitors due to
merge on 1 May 2002 have created aseries of half-day seminar covering:
- A detailed introduction to the Data Protection Act 1998
- Coverage of the Employment-related issues arising out of the Act and the
Code
- An examination of the impact of the Act and Code on the Disciplinary and
Tribunal Processes
The first seminar deals with detailed examination of the Recruitment and
Selection section of the Code.
This seminar will be the first in a series which will take place as future
sections of the Code are issued and supplements the current tailored
training provided by the firms in this area.
The first round of seminars will be held in Leeds, Manchester and London over the period Mid April to June 2002. Dates and venues are being
finalised. The cost, to include documentatiuon, will be £200 plus VAT per attendee.
If you are interested in receiving further details of the seminars please send an email to "[email protected]" without commitment on your part. The email should be sent by 31 March 2002.
"Staff in charge of or with responsibilities for the processing of the personal data of other workers need to know about data protection and
receive proper training. Without an adequate training of the staff
handling personal data, there could never be appropriate respect for the
privacy of workers in the workforce" - EU Article 29 Committee.
