Privacy notice: Human Resources (Employment)

NOTE: The wording in this document reflects the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into effect in the UK on 25 May 2018.

Who we are

Great Yarmouth Services Ltd (GYS), Town Hall, Hall Plain Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, NR30 2QF, 01493 742200, is the data controller for the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

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

What information does GYS collect?

GYS 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 GYS
• information about your remuneration, including entitlement to benefits such as pensions and 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 GYS 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 GYS 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

GYS 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 GYS ICT equipment; or through interviews, meetings or other assessments.

In some cases, GYS 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, on systems used by GYS's HR and Payroll contractor Great Yarmouth Borough Council and in other IT systems (including GYS's email system).

Why does GYS process personal data?

GYS 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, GYS 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.

Processing employee data allows GYS 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 GYS 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
• 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 GYS to operate check-off for union subscriptions. The lawful processing ground for these tasks is Article 9(2)(b) of the GDPR.

Where GYS 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 with Great Yarmouth Borough Council who provide GYS with HR & Payroll services and internally with 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.

GYS shares your data with third parties in order to obtain pre-employment references from other employers and obtain employment background checks from third-party providers. GYS 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.

Great Yarmouth Borough Council will also share your data with sub processors that process data on its behalf, in connection with payroll, the provision of benefits and the provision of occupational health services and recruitment function. Specifically, your data is shared with:

• Zellis in order for them to process the monthly payroll
• The NHS who provide GYS Occupational Health function
• Norfolk Pension Fund to administer GYS's pension scheme
• NEST pension scheme who provide workplace pension plans
• Eploy who host the GYS recruitment portal
• SkillGate who provide GYS e-learning facility

• Credence for Disclosure and Baring Service for DBS checks (where appropriate for your role)

GYS and its processor Great Yarmouth Borough Council will not transfer your data to countries outside the European Economic Area.

How does GYS protect data?

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

GYS takes the security of your data seriously. GYS 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 employees in the performance of their duties. GYS 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 GYS 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 GYS keep data?

Your personal information will be kept for as long detailed on GYS's 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 GYS restrict what it does with your data in certain circumstances, to object to what GYS 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 GYS 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 GYS 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 GYS 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 GYS 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 GYS to enter a contract of employment with you. If you do not provide other information, this will hinder GYS's ability to administer the rights and obligations arising as a result of the employment relationship efficiently.

Automated decision-making

Employment decisions are not based solely on automated decision-making.