HR Recruitment privacy notice

Employees, Workers and Contractors

Employee Records 

The Council is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information, this privacy notice describes how we collect and use personal information about you during and after your working relationship with us, in accordance with the current data protection legislation, it applies to all employees, workers and contractors.

This notice applies to current and former employees, workers and contractors. This notice does not form part of any contract of employment or other contract to provide services. We may update this notice at any time but if we do so, we will provide you with an updated copy of this notice as soon as reasonably practical. It is important that you read and retain this notice, together with any other privacy notice, we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information and what your rights are under current data protection legislation.

Contact details specific to service

If you have any queries that are specific to how your personal data is used as part of our recruitment process email: humanresources@cherwell-dc.gov.uk or write to Human Resources, Cherwell District Council, Bodicote House, Bodicote, Banbury, Oxfordshire, OX15 4AA

How we use your information collected

The Council needs to process data to enter an employment contract with you, meet its obligations under your employment contract, to pay you in accordance with your employment contract and to administer benefits such as your pension and other entitlements.

In some cases, the Council needs to process data to ensure that it is complying with its legal obligations. For example, the requirement to check an employee's entitlement to work in the UK, to deduct tax, to comply with health and safety legislation and to enable employees to take periods of leave to which they are entitled.

In other cases, the Council have a legitimate interest in processing personal data before, during and after the end of the employment relationship. Processing employee data allows the Council to:

• run recruitment and organisational review processes.
• maintain accurate employment records, 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 appraise performance, plan for career development and for workforce management purposes.
• operate and keep a record of absence and absence management proceedings, 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 the Council comply with duties in relation to individuals with disabilities and meets obligations under health and safety legislation.
• operate and keep a record of other types of leave (including annual leave, maternity, paternity, adoption, parental and shared parental leave), to allow effective workforce management, and to ensure that the Council comply with duties in relation to leave entitlement, and to ensure that employees are receiving 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.
• make statutory data reports related to the workforce.
• Ensure effective business continuity arrangements.

Some special categories of personal data, such as information about health or medical conditions, are processed to carry out legal employment obligations (such as those in relation to employees with disabilities).

Where the organisation 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 and equality impact assessments.

Who will have access to my personal data?

Your information may be shared internally, including with members of the HR and payroll teams, your line manager, managers in the service area in which you work and IT staff if access to the data is necessary for performance of their roles.

The Council may share your data with third parties in order to obtain pre-employment references from other employers, obtain employment background checks from third- party providers and obtain necessary criminal records checks from the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council may also share your data with third parties in the context of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations. In those circumstances the data will be subject to confidentiality arrangements.

The Council also shares your data with third parties that process data on its behalf in connection with payroll, the provision of benefits and the provision of occupational health services. The Council will not transfer your data to countries outside the European Economic Area.

What information is processed?

We will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you.  The Council collect and process a range of information about employees. This may include:

• 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 the Council.
• information about your remuneration.
• details of your bank account and national insurance number.
• information about your marital status, next of kin, and emergency contacts.
• information about your nationality and entitlement to work in the UK.
• information about your criminal record.
• details of your work pattern and attendance at work.
• details of leave taken by you, including holiday, sickness absence, family related leave and career breaks, and the reasons for the leave.
• details of any attendance management, disciplinary or grievance proceedings in which you have been involved, including any warnings issued to you and related correspondence.
• assessments of your performance from supervisions, one-to-ones, appraisals, performance improvement plans, related correspondence or that gathered through recruitment, probation or organisational review processes.
• details of any training and development.
• expenses claimed for; including out of pocket and travel related.
• Business travel related details and documentation.
• information about medical or health conditions, including whether or not you have a disability for which reasonable adjustments are made.
• health related referrals such as those to occupational health, musculoskeletal rehabilitation services, or a counselling service.
• equal opportunities monitoring information.
• information about trade union membership
• information regarding pensions; scheme (non) membership and contributions
• any voluntary or non-voluntary salary deductions (student loan, donations to charity etc.)

The Council may collect this information in a variety of ways. Data might be collected through application forms, identity documents, forms completed by you at the start of or during employment, from correspondence with you, employee surveys, or through interviews, meetings, or assessments.

The Council will seek information from third parties with your consent only or where required to fulfil a lawful obligation.

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

Data will be stored securely in the appropriate systems, including your electronic personnel file in the HR information management system, payroll and other IT systems (including the Council email system).

The Council takes the security of your data seriously. The Council 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.

Where the Council 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.

Retention period

The Council will hold your personal data for the duration of your employment and for no longer than is legally required.

Summary of rights

As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:

• access and obtain a copy of your data on request.
• require the Council to change incorrect or incomplete data.
• require the Council to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing.
• object to the processing of your data where the Council is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing.
• ask that no automated processing takes place with your data.
• ask for any automated portable electronic data file we hold on you to be sent to you or another organisation; or
• consider any complaint you have about how we have used your data.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please email: informationgovernance@cherwell-dc.gov.uk.

If you believe the Council have not complied with your data protection rights as exercised by you, you can complain to the Information Commissioner. A summary of your rights can be found on our website on our privacy and cookies page where you will also find the councils privacy policy.  

Alternatively, you can request this information

• by email: informationgovernance@cherwell-dc.gov.uk.
• Or by post: The Information Governance Team Cherwell District Council Bodicote House Bodicote Banbury Oxfordshire OX15 4AA