Private Company Looking for PPS number From Potential Candidates

ChurchStreet

Hi there,
I got a call from a Recruitment company today about a job in Large pharmaceutical company in Carlow. I discussed the job with the recruiter and indicated I was interested and put my CV forward. I got a casual email at 5.30pm asking me for my PPS and DOB. (My DOB is on my CV so that shouldnt have been a problem if they read my CV!) Apparently it is now company policy (For the large pharmaceutical company) for candidates to supply PPS and DOB. Is this legal ? I consider my PPS a very private personal piece of info, that I dont divulge willy nilly to any private company. As far as I'm aware its only Revenue and Social Welfare that have any legitate reason for looking for this or accessing personal records with this piece of info.
My guess is that they want to play private detective with this info.
Can anyone enlighten me on my rights with regards this ?

PS: I have nothing to hide in case anybody jumps in first with this!

pow wow

Not sure of the legalities of it but I'd assume it's legal as lots of companies do it as part of the early recruitment process - some won't even let you download an application form from their site without tapping in your PPS No. first. It may have something to do with having authorisation to work in Ireland or it may not.

I think you're overreacting tbh, I can't imagine what you think they'd be up to once they had the number anyway?

Nolanger

Bodies authorised to use the Personal Public Service Number under Social Welfare law
◊ Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Department of)
◊ Central Statistics Office (CSO)
◊ Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (Department of)
◊ Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs (Department of)
◊ Defence (Department of)
◊ Education and Skills (Department of)
◊ Enterprise, Trade and Innovation (Department of)
◊ Environment, Heritage and Local Government (Department of)
◊ Finance (Department of)
◊ Foreign Affairs (Department of)
◊ Health and Children (Department of)
◊ Justice and Law Reform (Department of)
◊ Revenue Commissioners (Office of)
◊ Social Protection (Department of)
◊ Taoiseach (Department of the)
◊ Tourism, Culture and Sport (Department of)
◊ Transport( Department of )

◊ Public Appointments Service
◊ Commission for Public Service Appointments
◊ Educational Institutions
◊ Health Boards
◊ Hospitals and Related Services
◊ Local Authorities
◊ Others

cee_jay

http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Topics/PPSN/Pages/useofppsn.aspx

pow wow

Nolanger wrote: »

Tell them to f*** off

Do you write that in the 'PPS Number' section on employer application forms then?

ChurchStreet

Should I report this practice by the Pharmaceutical company to the department of Social Welfare as this appears to be an illegal activity ?

vikingdub

I cannot think of any reason why they would want your PPS number, unless the agency, not the company, think that this will indicate whether or not you may work legally in Ireland, it will not.

Under the Employment Equality legislation, an employer is not permitted to ask a candidate any question which could lead to him/her being discriminated against under one (or more) of the nine grounds. It is also in the company's interest as a candidate who asked to provide a date of birth and subsequently does not receive a job offer could take a case against the company for denial of access to employment on the grounds of age. There are a number of successful cases of this nature on record.

ChurchStreet

Ok this is the update. I emailed back the recruitment agency and told them I was not comfortable to hand over my PPS number due to issues with identity theft etc if the PPS number was mislead or misused. They totally understood my position. They got back to the Pharmaceutical company and it transpired that they only wanted the first 4 digits of the PPS number. The reason they required this and also my DOB was that they wanted to keep track of CV's. I guess as the PPS number is not sanctioned for use by private companies to keep track of applications they got around it by asking for the first four digits only, which I was happy to give as this did not compromise my privacy.

It is quite clear from the Dept of Social Welfare Website that the use of the PPS number outside that of public services should not occur
Quote from Dept website:
"The PPS Number is intended to be used for the purpose of accurately identifying the individual in the administration of public services. It should only be given to and used by public bodies and should not be randomly disclosed."

Nolanger

Even the Guards can't ask for your PPSN. It's a case of an idiotic recruitment company doing what they like and getting away with it because they act 'professional'.

Blush_01

Nolanger wrote: »

Even the Guards can't ask for your PPSN. It's a case of an idiotic recruitment company doing what they like and getting away with it because they act 'professional'.

That pharmaceutical company probably formatted a standard form for their recruitment partners to use. There are other large multinationals around Ireland who have similar requirements. I doubt it's the "idiotic recruitment company"'s preference to ask questions they know will cause them to have to field questions like ChurchStreet's when it's adding to their workload. Recruitment companies are stupid like that, trying to avoid additional, unnecessary work.