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1. Introduction

South Tyneside Council Housing Services takes your privacy and the security of your information as an employee very seriously.

This notice explains when and why we collect personal information from you, how we use it, the conditions under which we may share it with, or disclose it to, others and how we keep it safe and secure.

2. Who are we?

South Tyneside Council Housing Services is the arms length management organisation set up to manage homes.

We are a not-for-profit company who provide housing services.

We provide management and development services for selected companies independent of South Tyneside Council Housing Services.

We also deliver some wider services, such as:

• area management 
• street cleansing
• welfare services
• anti-social behaviour services
• complaints management

South Tyneside Council Housing Services is an employer in its own right.

South Tyneside Council Housing Services is a data controller in relation to the data it holds on its employees.

Throughout this notice:

• 'we' refers to South Tyneside Council Housing Services
• 'you' refers to you as an employee of South Tyneside Council for the purposes of services delivered by South Tyneside Council Housing Services
• 'employee' refers to current, former or potential employees 
• 'UK GDPR' refers to the UK General Data Protection Regulation

3. What is personal information?

Personal information is defined as any data which relates to a living individual who can be identified:

• From the information we collect and hold, or
• From the information combined with any other information which is already in the possession of, or likely to come into the possession of, the person or organisation holding the information
• Location information from a vehicle tracking device

Personal information also includes any expression of opinions about an individual, and any indication of the intentions of the data controller, or any other person, in respect of the individual.

4. How do we collect information from you?

We obtain information from you from the Webrecruit platform.

All details supplied by you will be stored by Webrecruit. We will access your data via Webrecruit.  

Your personal details include your name, email address, responses to application questions and CV's.

If employed, for security purposes, your image may be recorded on CCTV in premises at which you work for the prevention and detection of crime and to protect our employees and visitors. The CCTV operates continuously and recordings are held for 1 month.  

Our landline phone calls are recorded for training and monitoring purposes and our recordings are usually held for a period of 3 months.

5. What information do we collect from or about you?

The categories of employee information that we may collect, process, hold and share include:

• Personal information such as name, date of birth, national insurance number, employee / payroll number, and your address
• Copies of identity documents that you provide to prove your age or identity and eligibility for employment, where the law requires this (including your passport and driver's licence). This information may include your name, address, date of birth and facial image. If you provide a passport, the data will also include your place of birth, gender and nationality
• Special categories of data, including characteristics information such as gender, age, ethnicity, health, religious or other similar beliefs
• Criminal offence data
• Medical information such as occupational health, medical reports and / or COVID-19 related information
• Contract information (such as start dates, hours worked, post, roles and salary information and deductions from salary)
• Work absence information (such as number of absences and reasons)
• Qualifications and training information
• Emergency contact information / next of kin information
• Financial information including bank account details, and payroll, pension and tax code information
• Information associated with any management process, such as sickness, disciplinary or grievance processes
• Your image, for identity, security or communications purposes
• Trade Union membership
• Location data

It is important that the data that we hold about you is correct. You should advise us as soon as possible if you need us to make any changes.

We will normally communicate with you in ways nominated by and provided by you unless there are exceptional reasons as to why we cannot comply with your preferred method of communication.

We will use these methods to communicate with you where you provide this to us.

We will not use these contact details for any purpose other than for the purposes of your employment with us, under the terms of this privacy notice, unless you give us permission to do so. 

6. How will we use your personal information?

We use your information to:

• Process your job application (CV and covering letter or paper application) to determine your suitability for the role (note, a paper application will be uploaded into Webrecruit and processed electronically)
• Process your personal information when you are successful in gaining employment with the Company
• Enable you to carry out your contractual requirements with South Tyneside Council
• Enable you to be paid
• Carry out management processes, such as disciplinary, grievance and other investigations
• Carry out health and safety processes, such as lone working
• Conduct your appraisal and 1-2-1 processes
• Record sickness or other absence from work 
• Carry out a staff survey
• Be photographed at work if you choose and give permission to be
• Track vehicles as part of our fleet vehicle
• Respond to and work to manage COVID-19 information including, if applicable, recent travel history, health information and treatment information
• Develop and implement policies and procedures to support the workforce and ensure our employment practices are fair and accessible
• Inform the development of recruitment and retention policies
• Meet our statutory equality monitoring and reporting requirements e.g. gender pay gap reporting
• Allocate you the equipment and resources that you need to do your job
• Develop a comprehensive picture of the workforce and how it is deployed
• Analysis of the workforce to succession plan
• Respond effectively in an emergency situation and ensure your health and safety at work
• Ensure that our premises and systems are secure
• Ensure the health and safety and safeguarding of our staff and customers
• Protect our business from fraud or illegal activities
• Carry out our statutory and public duties

We also conduct research and statistical analysis to help improve our business processes and the services offered to our employees, as well as to evaluate our performance against other benchmarks. Wherever possible, statistical information is anonymised or pseudonymised.

7. The lawful basis on which we process this information

We process workforce information relating to your employment contract, employment purposes generally and to protect our business and the public purse from fraud and illegal activity under Article 6 (1) (b) contract of the UK GDPR and also Article 6 (1) F Legitimate Interests.

We process special category data, such as ethnicity, etc. under Article 9 (2) (b) of the UK GDPR, relating to employment.

On occasion, we may process personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences under Article 10 of the UK GDPR, for the purposes of applications for employment, safeguarding or updating of Data Barring Service (DBS) checking.

Consent or Choice

Whilst the majority of information you provide to us is mandatory for the purpose of your employment with the company, some of it is provided to us on a voluntary basis.

In order to comply with data protection legislation, we will inform you whether you are required to provide certain information to us or if you have a choice in this.

However, if you choose not to share your personal data with us in these circumstances, this may affect our ability to improve our offer to you as an employee. In these cases, you may withdraw your permission for us to use your data at any time.

8. How is your information stored?

Information is held and processed within the Webrecruit platform.

Webrecruit is a cloud-based platform and therefore accessible via a web-browser in any location. No data transfer is made to locations or third parties outside of the EEA and is always hosted (along with backups) on OVH's servers at Roubaix and Gravelines in France. All data is encrypted during electronic transit when using the internet or any other network.

If you are successful in your application for employment your personal information related to your application will be transferred into South Tyneside Council Housing Services' network which is hosted by secure servers managed by South Tyneside Council. Parts of our electronic, computerised, systems are also managed directly by South Tyneside Council Housing Services.

South Tyneside Council has security procedures and an Information Security Policy to ensure that data is handled appropriately and protected from accidental loss or misuse. The Council seeks to comply and align its policies with all parts of the Information Security Standards ISO 27001. Access to workforce information is only permitted where there is a legitimate reason.

9. Who do we share your information with?

Webrecruit uses third parties to fulfil its service to candidates and employers including email delivery platforms and support desk software. In all cases, Webrecruit have sought and documented data security and data processing agreements with the third parties.  

South Tyneside Council Housing Services do not share information about our workforce members with anyone unless the law permits us to do so. We may share your information with:

• South Tyneside Council, who provide our Human Resources and Organisational Development, Payroll and associated services, Legal, Communications and (part) ICT Services
• Tyne and Wear Pensions Service, who provide Pension Services on your behalf
• Third parties that provide information that allows us to comply with Company legislation and regulations
• Government departments, such as HMRC and DWP
• Third party systems providers to help us to comply with Health and Safety legislation, including vehicle tracking, trades certification and lone working
• Carefully selected third party systems providers to enable us to deliver services effectively and efficiently under a data sharing agreement where necessary
• Digital Mail provider
• Data processors who work on our behalf
• DBS checking service
• People who you have identified for the purposes of an employment reference or who have been appointed by you to assist you with an employment dispute

We may share information for the purpose of fraud or crime prevention and for the apprehension or prosecution of offenders. We do not require your permission to share your information for this purpose and we may not notify you that we have done so. This may include sharing data with law enforcement bodies, such as the Police or HMRC and other public bodies where they have a law enforcement role.

When we share data with other organisations:

• We provide only the information that they need for their specific services
• We require the use of data is for the exact purposes that we specify in our agreement with them
• We require any data held by them will either be deleted or returned

As part of our contractual arrangements with these parties, we ensure that personal information is stored and managed securely.

We will not sell your personal data on to third parties.  We will not pass on your personal data to unrelated third parties unless we are allowed or required to do so by law, or we have your explicit permission to do so.

10. How long do we keep hold of your information?

We keep information in line with our retention policy. Your information will be held for 6 years after the ending of your employment with South Tyneside Council Housing Services, unless there are exceptional circumstances which require us to retain it for a longer period of time. If you are unsuccessful in your employment application we will hold your data for one year.

11. How can I access the information you hold about me, or correct it if it is inaccurate?

Data access and portability

If you require a copy of all data we are holding in a commonly used electronic format, please contact Data.Protection@southtyneside.gov.uk with the details of your request.

Any requests will be responded to and completed within one month.

Data deletion

If you would like your data to be deleted from Webrecruit please login to your account. Within your account you will have the option to submit a deletion request which will be actioned within 28 days.

If you want your data to be deleted from South Tyneside Council, please contact Data.Protection@southtyneside.gov.uk with your request. Any requests will be responded to and completed within one month.

Data restriction and objection

If you have an objection to any processing of your data or wish to restrict any further processing within Webrecruit, please contact candidate@webrecruit.co.uk with details of your request.

If you have an objection to any processing of your data or wish to restrict any further processing by South Tyneside Council Housing Services, please contact Data.Protection@southtyneside.gov.uk with details of your request.

Data rectification

If you have an objection to any processing of your data or wish to restrict any further processing by Webrecruit, please contact candidate@webrecruit.co.uk with details of your request.

Should you have an objection to any processing of your data or wish to restrict any further processing by South Tyneside Council Housing Services please email Data.Protection@southtyneside.gov.uk with details of your request.

12. Contact details (Data Protection Officer)

If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, we ask that you raise your concern with us in the first instance.

Please contact our Data Protection Officer at:

• South Tyneside Council Housing Services, Town Hall and Civic Offices, Westoe Road, South Shields, Tyne and Wear, NE33 2RL, or
• by e-mail on Data.Protection@southtyneside.gov.uk 

Alternatively, you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office: Concerns.

13. Changes to our privacy policy

We may change this privacy notice from time to time.

If we change our privacy notice in the future, we will set out those changes here so that you will always know what personal information we gather, the purposes we might use it for and to whom it might be disclosed.

This privacy notice was last updated on 26 May 2022.