Employee Privacy Notice

The council is the ‘Data Controller’ of the HR-related personal information you provide to us. We only collect personal information about you which we need to manage the employment relationship with you.

The council maintains data protection controls in line with data protection law, its full privacy statement and the Human Resources Data Protection Policy, to ensure the effective and secure processing of your personal information. 

Where an employee is also a service user of Angus Council, information connected to the service they are using will be treated in line with the privacy statement for that service.

What HR-related personal information do we hold?

  • your name, address and contact details, 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, references obtained during recruitment;
  • information about your criminal record check, obtained during recruitment, where appropriate;
  • information about your remuneration, including entitlement to benefits such as pensions;
  • details of your bank account and national insurance number;
  • information on your next of kin/emergency contact(s);
  • information about your nationality and entitlement to work in the UK;
  • details of your days of work, working hours and attendance at work recorded on the council’s time recording systems, door entry system or other method of recording;
  • details of periods of all leave taken by you, including annual leave, flexi, bought/banked,  sickness absence, family leave and any other types of leave, and the reasons for the leave;
  • outcome 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, appraisals, supervision, training undertaken, performance improvement plans and related correspondence;
  • details contained in any homeworking agreement;
  • information about any workplace and/or work-related health and safety incident(s);   
  • full details of all internet access, whether work related or personal, collected by automated systems;
  • full details of all email use, whether work related or personal, collected by automated systems;
  • information about reasons for sickness absence, absence reporting, medical or health conditions or health assessments (including current and previous records with occupational health);
  • a facial photograph for identification and communication purposes;
  • details of trade union membership;
  •  personal characteristic information as defined in the equality act 2010;
  • anonymised personal characteristic information for monitoring information.

Where this HR-related personal information is gathered from

This information is collected through the recruitment process, application forms, identity documents, forms completed by you, at the start of or during employment, including incident report(s) completed by you or on your behalf, from correspondence with you, or through telephone calls, live chat, messaging, emails, interviews, meetings, health assessments, recruitment assessments and information generated by the use of council systems.

The council, as required, may collect personal information about you from third parties, in connection with, for example, references, information for criminal records checks permitted by law and information from occupational health providers.

Why we process your HR-related personal information

The council needs to process information to enter into an employment contract with you, to meet its obligations under your employment contract while you are in employment and to handle your personal information when you leave our employment.  We process information to:

  • pay you and to administer benefits, pension and other entitlements;
  • comply with our legal obligations, such as to check an entitlement to work in the UK,  deduct tax, comply with health and safety legislation and enable employees to exercise statutory rights, e.g. take maternity, sickness and annual leave;
  • carry out recruitment processes;
  • maintain accurate and up-to-date employment records;
  • operate and keep a record of disciplinary, grievance and harassment/bullying processes(only where a formal investigation), to ensure acceptable conduct within the workplace;
  • operate and keep a record of employee performance and related processes, including for workforce development purposes;
  • operate and keep a record of absence, absence reporting and absence management procedures, to allow effective workforce management;
  • record any workplace or work-related health and safety incident you are involved in and comply with health and safety law;
  • obtain occupational health advice, to ensure that we comply with duties in relation to employees with disabilities, meet our obligations to provide health surveillance and where a health concern is having an impact at work;
  • operate systems to keep a record working hours and types of leave (including annual, flexi, bought/banked, 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 employee-related benefits to which they are entitled;
  • provide analyses of employee information to ensure proper use of facilities and to protect council systems;
  • ensure effective general HR and business administration and business continuity;
  • information about medical or health conditions;
  • a facial photograph for identification purposes and where consent has been provided, for communication purposes, held on the council’s contacts database and on systems such as email, skype, lync etc. 
  • provide references on request for current or former employees;
  • respond to and defend against legal claims;
  • maintain and promote equality in the workplace;
  • provide workforce data for service planning, targeting resources and workforce planning; and
  • ensure personal information is handled appropriately when an employee leaves the council.

Who has access to your personal information?

  • Human Resources, including payroll, your line manager, senior manager in the service area in which you work, IT, business support, safety, health and wellbeing staff, internal audit, external audit, risk and insurance staff, have access to the information as necessary for the relevant performance of their roles.
  • Counter Fraud Team for the purposes of fraud prevention/detection including sharing with public bodes such as Audit Scotland and other regulatory and law enforcement bodies.
  • Third parties for pre-employment references and other checks, criminal records checks via Disclosure Scotland, working hours system operation and management, council’s insurance providers, pension providers, analysis of workforce data via Scottish Government, and other such services,  including relating to a transfer of some or all of the council’s business.
  • Human Resources may share information with third parties who process information on the council’s behalf in connection with payroll (the council’s HR/payroll system), in connection with employee benefits (with your consent), who provide occupational health and absence reporting services and who request pay information for mortgage applications.
  • Human Resources may share relevant information where required to do so by law or to prevent risk of harm to an individual, including Police Scotland, Disclosure Scotland and professional bodies.
  • Courts or employment tribunal service should you during or subsequent to your employment enter into a dispute with the council.
  • Council insurers and their appointed representatives should you during or subsequent to your employment submit a personal injury at work claim against the council.
  • Where you are the author of a committee report or named in a report, your name, service and work contact details will be published on the council website.

Are you or your personal information monitored?

Some of the council’s premises have CCTV and other recording systems in place for public and staff safety, crime prevention and preventing/detecting abuse of council policies.  Information on this is contained in the council’s full privacy statement.

All use of council email and internet is monitored by automated systems to ensure proper use, to protect council systems and data, and are reported from as required.

How your HR-related personal information is protected by the council and third parties

This is set out in the council’s full privacy statement and Human Resources Data Protection Policy.

How long the council will keep your HR-related personal information

The council will hold your personal information for the duration of your employment or for a period required under legislation.  The periods for which your data is held during and at the end of your employment are set out in the Information Asset Register

What if you do not provide HR-related personal information?

You have obligations to provide the council with information.   If you do not provide the required information, this may hinder our ability to enter into an employment contract with you, to administer and manage your rights and obligations in the contract and for you to exercise your statutory rights.

What are your rights?

Your individual rights relating to your own HR-related personal information and how to exercise those are set out in the Human Resources Data Protection Policy.  

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your HR-related personal information, you can contact our Data Protection Officer at InformationGovernance@angus.gov.uk.

If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are not processing your personal information in accordance with the law you can seek advice from  the Information Commissioner’s Office through their website:  https://ico.org.uk/,  their helpline on 0303 123 1113, or in writing to:  Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.