Employers Coercing Workers into Signing their Rights to Privacy Away

dublin | worker & community struggles and protests | opinion/analysis

Wednesday April 30, 2008 00:24

by No One's Business by Mine

Violation of Worker's Right to Privacy

A personal account of how my right to privacy was signed away by the act of simply signing my employment contract:

Recently, I obtained a job as a secretary and signed an employment contract which I later read in detail and discovered to my shock and amazement a clause in it which stated that by signing this employment contract to obtain this job, I was consenting to the collection of sensitive personal data about me by the firm and to its release and disclosure to ‘interested third parties’, with no specific mention whatsoever as to the use to be made of my sensitive personal data. The details sought by the firm include:

details of my sex life - how on Earth are they going to obtain this?
details of my political views;
my medical history;
information on Trade Union membership;
information on my religious and philosophical beliefs, amongst other inappropriate requests.

I cannot see how the above is relevant information to my employment as a secretary. Also, I find this request to seek out sensitive personal data about me a gross violation of my right to privacy and should, in my opinion, be a breach of the Irish Data Protection Acts, due to the excessiveness of the information sought. I’m annoyed with myself that I signed the contract without reading it in detail, I should have known better, but I needed a job and I’m infuriated that a company would obtain consent to seeking such information by using such unfair coercive means and then claim I consented to it all by my simple act of signing the employment contract to obtain a badly needed job, in other words - sign your right to privacy away or you have no job!

I wonder if anyone else out there has experienced a similar nuisance clause in their employment contract. I would be interested to hear from other workers who have had similar experiences, particularly, with regard to responses they received to complaints they had made. It would be interesting to find out how common this is.

I have gone onto the Data Protection web site and apparently, as my circumstances stand, I’m now entitled to the following rights:

- the right to object;
- the right to rectification or erasure;
- the right to know for what purpose my personal data will be used;
- the right to be informed of what third parties have received or will receive my sensitive personal data;
- the right to block certain uses, etc.

I realise now, I may have weakened my rights somewhat by signing the bloody employment contract in the first place, but by objecting now I hope the rights above are open to me, although I won’t hold my breath as I recall it stated in one sentence of the contract, that by signing this contract, I’m consenting to the use and release and disclosure of all sensitive private data held about me - which leaves me red faced with fury. I will be notifying them in writing of my objections, so fingers-crossed they will be decent about it - if not, I’ll be seeking both advice and employment elsewhere.

In my opinion, it is grossly unfair of employers to obtain such sensitive personal data about employees when it has nothing to do with the job the employee will be employed to do. I believe acquiring such sensitive personal data on an employee is a gross violation of the privacy of the worker and employees should object to such intrusiveness and the coercive acts of such employers.

Related link: http://www.dataprotection.ie/docs/Home/4.htm

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Comments (9 of 9)

First off, I'm not a lawyer...

by Paul McCarthy

Wed Apr 30, 2008 01:44

... so take this with a pinch of salt, but as far as I know it's got to be illegal to inquire into your sex life and religious preferences. Is your company involved in anything highly sensitive? If not, your political affiliation should be irrelevant too (in my opinion it should be irrelevant anyway).

I think if challenged your company would admit that the can't force you to give any information, but that "your cooperation would be appreciated", in other words, tell us what we want to know or you'll never get that promotion or whatever. Here in London, a friend of mine told me about random drug tests being carried out by the big American finance companies in the City on Monday mornings. Even though it's not legally enforcable (I think... again, I'm not a lawyer), the workers have signed a contract saying they have no objection and a refusal to give a sample goes on your record.

I'd go to Citizens Advice with this. Unlike me they'll give you a qualified opinion! They really helped out loads of people I know with employment issues. If you do, post up what they tell you. Would be good to know.

Good luck!

Sinister eire nua

by paul o toole

Wed Apr 30, 2008 09:59

I believe in the Dail that laws pertaining to data retention have been introduced last March. All companies and servers involved in communication are requested to hold all calls, emails, attachments, senders and recipients information etc for a period of 18 months. I only follow this stuff loosley but I think it passed without objection.
McDoughall irradicated the right to silence 'in certatn cases' yet to be specified -which in effect removes the right to the presumption of innocence if you choose to remain silent in court. This also went through without objection from the 'opposition'-makes you wonder, or shudder more like it.
Your personal information is no business of anyones. You should write a letter and register it, revolking any right you may have unwittingly given up in the signing of this 'contract'. CC it to all departments and a lawyer if you got one. See if there is any support on the ground for to strenghten your case.
Scary times lay ahead if this is going on regularly..goog luck

More info

by reader

Wed Apr 30, 2008 13:18

Can you show the relevant excerpts of the contract? or type them out? Did you get the job directly or through an agency?

I don't know what your complaining about.

by Weary

Wed Apr 30, 2008 16:07

"details of my sex life - how on Earth are they going to obtain this?"

Information about whether you are single or married with children is a reasonable request from any employer

"details of my political views;"

If you are working for a commercial company and you are a raving marxist-leninist or working with ethnic minorities and you happen to be hostile to blacks this would be an issue.

"my medical history;"

If I was hiring a secretary and that person had a history of mental illness or chronic illness I would like to know about it.

"information on Trade Union membership;"

If a company does not recognise trade unions it usually prefers not to employ people who are trade unionists in the first place. If it does it would like to know who are members and who are not in the event of industrial disputes.

"information on my religious and philosophical beliefs, amongst other inappropriate requests."

If you are a Hindu or a Muslim or a Catholic you might be unavailable for work and they would need to know when so they could cover for you. They might also need to be culturally sensitive to minorities in the workforce.

Fair enough points Weary, but....

by Diogenes

Wed Apr 30, 2008 16:43

What then do you make of the distribution of personal data to ' interested 3rd parties '? I can't for the life of me think who these might be. Perhaps some of those organisations which like to publish meaningless statistics. I still think this sort of info should be proferred on a voluntary basis, not a contractually binding one, unless as someone pointed out, you work in a 'sensitive' area.
As for drugs testing, the link below is the best I could come up with.

Living the film '1984'

by Nobody's business

Wed Apr 30, 2008 21:44

Many thanks to everyone who has offered advice.

Paul:
The Company is involved in highly sensitive work and if they have nothing to hide then they should have nothing to worry about and my sound political opinions should be of no concern to them. No company has the right to know my political views - I go to work solely to work. I am a very honest person and have always been a trustworthy employee that should be good enough for this company as it has been for my previous employers, who never had a problem with me or my work.

Reader:
I’m not providing an excerpt from my employment contract, as it could be recognised by anyone working in the firm, as I know they all obtained a similar contract with slight variations, but I have given a summary here and highlighted the most contentious points in it.

"Weary" (what an appropriate name you have!)
I don’t know why you don’t understand what I’m complaining about. I presume you would have no problem yourself with sensitive personal data being collected about you and being released to ‘interested third parties’ without your consent. It states in my employment contract quite ludicrously that, if I do not consent to giving them the information voluntarily they have the right to seek it from third parties without my consent or knowledge and that by signing it, I‘m giving them consent to do so should it be necessary, even though I do not consent (this is akin to the “Confusion Technique/Alice in Wonderland Technique” used by hard sellers, the intelligence services, and familiar also to those who are scientologists - a psychologic trick that confuses the mind and weakens resistance in those fooled by it).

All workers should object to sensitive personal data being sought without their consent and the dissemination of this private data to third parties without their permission! I thought that Orwell's, '1984' book was a work of fiction - I seem to be living it recently with cctv cameras inside my place of work and the firm attempting to gain access to every aspect of my private life and every thought or independent view that I may hold - it also stated in the contract that I was not entitled to express views publicly that were contrary to those of the firm's! I guess, I won't be staying there too long, anyway, I'm far too independent and opinionated for this firm.

Clarify please

Thu May 01, 2008 00:56

I was under the impression that your new employers were looking to distribute your personal info TO 3rd parties. From your last post however, it would seem your employer is looking for info on you FROM 3rd parties. Big difference. If you work in certain industries, then background checks are part and parcel. You have obviously been offerred a contract already so your new employers are quite happy to take you on. However, I just wonder, in your circumstances what exact info they're looking for and why if, as I said, they are going to employ you already.

This whole CV job contract thing is overdue for destruction

by bah

Thu May 01, 2008 19:04

I'm so tired of how workers are expected to tout all their personal info to strangers who mishandle them. All for a job where most of te info is unnecessary. Either you are qualified and experienced at doing the job or not.
Look what happened with monster.com. and all the cv's

These days you should get a cv from the industry telling you all the nasty shit they have their fingers in globally before YOU decide to work for THEM.

We sell ourselves to these bastards far too cheaply and meekly

It's not just background checks - I'm not that naive or stupid!

Thu May 01, 2008 20:27

It's not just background checks - I'm not that naive or stupid! I am well aware companies do background checks. I don't think they are fair on people and I do not like the fact that they are conducted, as I don't believe that it's anybody's business what my background is, and I believe such checks are unfair to individuals who have come out of prison or who were once incarcerated in a mental institution in the distant past and who have been fully rehabilitated, but are discriminated against forever because of one incident lost in the cobwebs of the past and long forgotten by everyone else. I'm not concerned so much about security checks, as I have no criminal history, but it is another area of my life that I'm worried about - we all have 'skeletons in the closet' (not to be taken literally!).

I outlined above what information they want to share with other parties, which basically is everyting that I would consider strictly private & confidential. The employment contract I signed stated that sensitive personal data on me could be released at anytime to 'interested third parties' with or without my permission (I get the impression that it is companies that the firm owns worldwide, but it could be anyone for all I know, as it doesn't specify who will obtain the information on me or what they'll do with it) and because I signed the fucking contract, they can produce evidence of my signature showing 'my consent' to anyone and the sensitive information can then be released without me knowing about it. I have given you the web site for Data Protection Agency and you can look up what 'sensitiive personal data' means if you don't know and ask yourself the question: would you be happy for this information to be disseminated to other companies be it for market research, insurance purposes or for whatever purpose? I am certainly not happy, I believe it to be excessive given the role I have in the company.

The reason I have written about this is, I object to the blatant intrusiveness into the worker's private world outside the firm and the excessiveness of it, I believe it to be extremely unfair, and I wondered if any other workers out there ever came across such a clause in their contract.

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Employers Coercing Workers into Signing their Rights to Privacy Away

Comments (9 of 9)