Privacy notice: Human Resources (Employment)

NOTE: The wording in this document reflects the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR).

Data controller

Great Yarmouth Borough Council (the Council), Town Hall, Hall Plain Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, NR30 2QF, 01493 856100, is the data controller for the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR) and associated domestic law.

The Council collects and processes personal data relating to its employees to manage the employment relationship. The Council is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.

What information does the Council collect?

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, childcare vouchers, cycle to work scheme, eye-care
details of your bank account and national insurance number
information about your marital status, next of kin, dependants and emergency contacts and vehicle details
information about your nationality and entitlement to work in the UK
information about your criminal record where appropriate to your role
details of your schedule (days of work and working hours) and attendance at work
details of periods of leave taken by you, including 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
information sent and received from Council ICT equipment, including usernames and IP addresses
assessments of your performance, including appraisals, performance reviews and ratings, 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
equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about your age, gender, marital status, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability and religion or belief.

The Council collects this information in a variety of ways. For example, data is collected through application forms, CVs or resumes; 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 (such as benefit nomination forms); from correspondence with you; by the use of Council ICT equipment; or through interviews, meetings or other assessments.

In some cases, the Council collects personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers and information from criminal records checks permitted by law.

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).

Why does the Council process personal data?

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 benefit and pension entitlements. The lawful processing ground for this information is Article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR.

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. The lawful processing ground for these tasks is Article 6(1)(c) of the GDPR.

Processing employee data allows the Council to:

run recruitment 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
protect public funds it administers
maintain and promote equality in the workplace.

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. The lawful processing ground for these tasks is Article 9(2)(b) of the GDPR.

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.

Who has access to data?

Your information will be shared internally, including with members of the HR team (including payroll), your line manager, managers in the business area in which you work 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 also participates in the Cabinet Office's National Fraud Initiative to help with the prevention of fraud and to protect the public funds the Council administers. The Council may also share your data with third parties in the context of a TUPE transfer. 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 with payroll, the provision of benefits and the provision of occupational health services and recruitment function and for the prevention of fraud.

Specifically, the Council shares your data with

Zellis in order for them to process the monthly payroll and to provide a HR employment and management system
the NHS who provide the Council's Occupational Health function
Norfolk Pension Fund to administer the Council's pension scheme
SkillGate who provide the Council's e-learning facility
eploy who host the Council's recruitment portal
Local Government Authority (Local Government benchmarking)
Credence for Disclosure and Barring Service for DBS checks (where appropriate for your role)
The Cabinet Office's National Fraud Initiative, a data matching exercise to assist in the prevention and detection of fraud. We are required to provide particular sets of data to the Minister for the Cabinet Office for matching for each exercise, as detailed on GOV.UK - National Fraud Initiative

The Council will not transfer your data to countries outside the European Economic Area.

How does the Council protect data?

Your information will be kept strictly confidential. It will be stored in a secure, password-protected data base/spreadsheet on the Council's computer system.

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. The Council has a Data Protection policy to which it adheres and systems which hold your data are password protected and only accessible to those employees who have a requirement to access it in line with the duties of their role.

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.

For how long does the Council keep data?

Your personal information will be kept for as long detailed on the Councils Retention schedule. We will only use your data within the terms of data protection laws, will delete your data securely and only keep it for as long as necessary. We will review dates for keeping personal data in the future and, if necessary, update these privacy notices.

Your rights

You have a number or rights available to you, including the right to see copies of all the data held hold about you, to ask for it to be corrected or deleted, to request the Council to restrict what it does with your data in certain circumstances, to object to what the Council may do with your data, and to data portability.

Please note that these rights are not absolute and there are circumstances where they do not apply or the Council may override these rights, however, if this is the case you will be informed of this.

If you want more information you may contact the Council's Data Protection Officer at gdpr@great-yarmouth.gov.uk or telephone the Council on 01493 846855 and ask to speak to the Data Protection Officer.

If you believe that the Council has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner, https://ico.org.uk.

What if you do not provide personal data?

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.