Job interview confidentiality.

piplip87

Hi all,

I really hop I can get some advice here as I think I have been wronged and it is causing a large amount of distress to my life.

A few month I attended an interview for a job in a new retail outlet opening in my town. I successfully got the job. I was then made an offer from another company and decided to take that job.

All was going well until this week when the retail outlet opened. Since then I have been told my quite a few locals that, I got a job in the shop but didn't bother turning up for training, I managed to trace back the stories and found out the assistant manager (who had absolutely nothing to do with the interview process) Had told another few locals this story.

This story has damaged my reputation and it will make finding employment in the locality extremely difficult as it is a small town and now I am seen as unreliable.

I have made a complaint to the retail outlet but surely there is data protection laws violated here ?

Losty Dublin

Data Protection relates to how a body or company uses data that you volunteered to it. What data information of yours held and gathered by the company was passed on by them?

GerardKeating

piplip87 wrote: »

Hi all,

I really hop I can get some advice here as I think I have been wronged and it is causing a large amount of distress to my life.

A few month I attended an interview for a job in a new retail outlet opening in my town. I successfully got the job. I was then made an offer from another company and decided to take that job.

All was going well until this week when the retail outlet opened. Since then I have been told my quite a few locals that, I got a job in the shop but didn't bother turning up for training, I managed to trace back the stories and found out the assistant manager (who had absolutely nothing to do with the interview process) Had told another few locals this story.

This story has damaged my reputation and it will make finding employment in the locality extremely difficult as it is a small town and now I am seen as unreliable.

I have made a complaint to the retail outlet but surely there is data protection laws violated here ?

When you decided not to take the first job, how did you inform them, did you do it in writing?

Peregrinus

piplip87 wrote: »

. . . Since then I have been told my quite a few locals that, I got a job in the shop but didn't bother turning up for training . . .

The key question; is this true?

seamus

Losty Dublin wrote: »

What data information of yours held and gathered by the company was passed on by them?

The fact that he had interviewed with them and been given a job by them?

That would qualify as personal information under the DPA that a company would not necessarily be entitled to reveal to the public. Even the fact that he had not turned up could be considered confidential information.

As Peregrinus alludes to though, the main issue in the OP's case is not about whether the DPA has been breached but about whether the statement of "didn't bother turning up for training" is true.

_Brian

Even if they did pass on personal data, what can be done. The data commissioner is toothless as far as I know.

Peregrinus

_Brian wrote: »

Even if they did pass on personal data, what can be done. The data commissioner is toothless as far as I know.

Depends on what you mean by "toothless". The Commissioner's function is to enforce compliance with the Act, not to award compensation for those affected by non-compliance. He has no power to do this, and if you are looking for an award of damages or similar, you to where everyone else goes when they want an award of damages; to a court.

If what was said by the company is untrue, then obviously that's defamation. If it was true, then you'd argue a breach of confidentiality, either arising under the Data Protection Act or arising out of the employment-based context of the relationship.

But the injury the OP feels he has suffered is reputational, and herein lies a problem. No amount of damages being awarded to him is going to improve his reputation. If what was said about him was false then he can perhaps demand a public apology, but even then there's a risk that this simply draws attention to a story that might otherwise be forgotten before too long. If what was said about him was true - viz, he failed to tell the company that he didn't want the job and the first they knew of it was when he failed to turn up - then, frankly, the less attention drawn to this the better, from the OP's point of view. He might want to get the company to tell their manager to stop talking about such matters outside the house, but he wants that done as quietly as possible.

_Brian

OP doesn't deserve compensation but still it's a shame that the data commissioner can't fine a company for data breaches.

gizmo555

_Brian wrote: »

OP doesn't deserve compensation but still it's a shame that the data commissioner can't fine a company for data breaches.

At present she can't - in Ireland the only way one can be fined for breaking data protection laws is by the courts after a conviction for a criminal offence. And a breach like this is not a criminal offence.

However, from 25 May 2018, under the terms of the new EU General Data Protection Regulation, she will be able to impose administrative fines for infringements of the regulation of up to €20m or 4% of global turnover on her own authority.

Losty Dublin

seamus wrote: »

The fact that he had interviewed with them and been given a job by them?

That would qualify as personal information under the DPA that a company would not necessarily be entitled to reveal to the public. Even the fact that he had not turned up could be considered confidential information.

Did the company pass his information on to others be it by accident or design or is this a case of little more than mere gossip?

coylemj

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Did the company pass his information on to others be it by accident or design or is this a case of little more than mere gossip?

It's clearly bad mouthing by that assistant manager as an act of revenge against the OP for not taking the job. Attempting to pin that on the company as a breach of the DPA is stretching things a bit.

GerardKeating

coylemj wrote: »

It's clearly bad mouthing by that assistant manager as an act of revenge against the OP for not taking the job. Attempting to pin that on the company as a breach of the DPA is stretching things a bit.

If untrue it might be defamation, if the OP told the company they were not taking up the position.

Avatar MIA

coylemj wrote: »

It's clearly bad mouthing by that assistant manager as an act of revenge against the OP for not taking the job. Attempting to pin that on the company as a breach of the DPA is stretching things a bit.

The assistant manager is an agent of the company.

coylemj

Avatar MIA wrote: »

The assistant manager is an agent of the company.

If you want to get really technical, he is a servant of the company, not an agent.

sbsquarepants

I think Perigrinus has hit the nail on the head.

OP decided to take the second job - but did they inform the first company of this decisions or did they just decide themselves, in other words just "didn't turn up for training".

coylemj

sbsquarepants wrote: »

I think Perigrinus has hit the nail on the head.

OP decided to take the second job - but did they inform the first company of this decisions or did they just decide themselves, in other words just "didn't turn up for training".

+1 is this why data protection (but not defamation) is the only angle being explored by the OP? It would be useful to get this clarified.

gizmo555

coylemj wrote: »

+1 is this why data protection (but not defamation) is the only angle being explored by the OP? It would be useful to get this clarified.

A simple reason one might consider a data protection complaint rather than a high cost and high risk action for defamation is that there is no charge for making a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner.

As the saying goes, the courts are open to everyone - just like the Ritz Hotel!

_Brian

gizmo555 wrote: »

At present she can't - in Ireland the only way one can be fined for breaking data protection laws is by the courts after a conviction for a criminal offence. And a breach like this is not a criminal offence.

However, from 25 May 2018, under the terms of the new EU General Data Protection Regulation, she will be able to impose administrative fines for infringements of the regulation of up to €20m or 4% of global turnover on her own authority.

So my point is why would a company worry about being reported to the data commisioner ?? What difference.. There would be an investigation and "recommendations", I doubt the directors would loose sleep over it..

coylemj

Where does data end and gossip start? Does the fact (whether true or not) that the OP might have failed to show up for a training course constitute personal 'data' under the DPA? What if a manager told a customer than a particular employee came in to work last week with two odd socks - is the DPA a catch-all law that prohibits all tittle tattle or where is the boundary?

Seems to me like the OP is clutching at straws.

Peregrinus

coylemj wrote: »

Where does data end and gossip start? Does the fact (whether true or not) that the OP might have failed to show up for a training course constitute personal 'data' under the DPA? What if a manager told a customer than a particular employee came in to work last week with two odd socks - is the DPA a catch-all law that prohibits all tittle tattle or where is the boundary?

Seems to me like the OP is clutching at straws.

In general if you're an employee you have a right to expect that your employer will deal with the relationship in a way which will maintain the degree of trust and confidence that should subsist between employer and employee. That includes your personal foibles and failings not becoming the subject of gossip, and not being discussed except with people who legitimately need to hear about them for reasons connected with the employer's business.

The thing is, of course, that by the time this started being gossipped about, the OP wasn't an employee, if indeed he ever had been. Still, he'd been offered a job and he presumably indicated, at least at one point, that he accepted, and that would be enough to create an expectation that the employer would behave towards him in an appropriate way, which definitely includes not gossiping about the circumstances in which the relationship comes to an end.

But the other thing is that this duty to behave in a way that maintains trust and confidence isn't normally something that, in itself, gives rise to an action in damages. It's the kind of thing that might be relevant in determining whether somebody was constructively dismissed, for example.