Experience of subject access requests?

Energize

Energize

Energize

Caporegime
Joined
12 Mar 2004
Posts
29,952
Location
England
I was recently laid off under dodgy circumstances, and I am interested in the real reason why. Since my manager is giving me a reference via his personal address and I am not going through work my reference is sorted for my new job and I am not too worried about ****ing them off.

Has anyone gone through the process of a SAR before? My intention is not only to gain the necessary information I want but to cause the absolute maximum amount of inconvenience and cost to the business and make them spend weeks going through emails, skype conversations, photographs on the shared drives, databases on all the servers and CCTV footage.

Can anyone give me any advice on how to proceed, or their own personal experience of these?
 
More info needed.

What was the reason for the lay off and why don't you think it was the true reason?

SARs should not (and often cannot) be used for fishing exercises. SARs are assessed to filter out vexatious filings (i.e. ones whose aim is "to cause the absolute maximum amount of inconvenience and cost to the business"). If you have a specific complaint, you should go to an employment tribunal where a SAR can be used to obtain evidence to be used at an ET hearing.

I assume you've spoken to your union rep if you think you were laid off "under dodgy circumstances". What have they advised?
 
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They said there was no more work for me to do because I had nearly completed a large task, but in fact there was a lot more work to do, months so in fact, and they actually kept on a more junior employee who is doing what I used to do! The MD in question had shown a dislike for me on numerous occasions with his behavior and I honestly just think he wanted rid of me because of certain flexible time keeping issues which is part of my registered disability.

I received an email asking for a meeting 24 hours in advance which tipped me off that I was going to be binned off, and being a domain administrator I used that time to prepare adequately for the lay off luckily.

amigafan2003 said:
SARs should not (and often cannot) be used for fishing exercises. SARs are assessed to filter out vexatious filings (i.e. ones whose aim is "to cause the absolute maximum amount of inconvenience and cost to the business"). If you have a specific complaint, you should go to an employment tribunal where a SAR can be used to obtain evidence to be used at an ET hearing.
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I had worked there for less than two years so a normal employment tribunal is not possible is it? And doesn't the data protection act say that all data must be disclosed regardless of the reason?
 
Energize said:
I had worked there for less than two years so a normal employment tribunal is not possible is it? And doesn't the data protection act say that all data must be disclosed regardless of the reason?
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Unless the reason is vexatious.

It's all here
 
Yeah I've read through that document, but I can't see where it says that companies can refuse the request.


I do actually have a legitimate request here.
 
Energize said:
Yeah I've read through that document, but I can't see where it says that companies can refuse the request.
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Denying vexatious requests/claims is just standard law - it applies to everything.

What I'm trying to say, is decide why you need the information and what you will do with that information. Statements such as "to cause the absolute maximum amount of inconvenience and cost to the business" don't help you. You shouldn't be approaching it with that mindset.

You say you think you've been let go due to your disability - that's very serious if true - you should really be discussing this with a solicitor that specialises in employment law. Disability is a protected characteristic, which means the "two year qualification period" for an ET claim doesn't apply if the ET claim relates in someway to your disability.

The protected characteristics are age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
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That's unfortunate. The thing is I don't want to spend huge amounts of effort on this when it might not turn up anything. I'm moving on to a new job so don't want to get bogged down too much over what was a pretty low paid job with no prospects.

I would discuss with a solicitor if I had the money but unfortunately I don't, I was hoping to be able to find some actual evidence to back up my suspicions by using a SAR and then going to a solicitor if I got some hard evidence.

Do you think limiting the scope to say 90 days email and Skype convos would be more reasonable?
 
Yeah, just putting in a basic catch all "I want all information stored about me" will likely just **** off whoever actually has to deal with it and will most likely result in them denying it.

I'd personally see about getting an initial free appointment with a solicitor (if any still do this) or go to CAB and see what they have to say first.
 
I've been on the other end of a SAR - it's wholly restricted to identifying information. It's not likely you'll get anything out of them that will spill the beans on why you were fired.

What they will need to provide is any information that can be used to identify you - this is not just name and address - it can be anything from clothing sizes, places you have travelled to, dietary/medical information etc. *anything* that could be used to differentiate you from next person. But I doubt "reason for getting fired" will be in there as that won't be public record anyway.
 
Energize said:
The MD in question had shown a dislike for me on numerous occasions with his behavior and I honestly just think he wanted rid of me because of certain flexible time keeping issues which is part of my registered disability.
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You need to forget a SAR for now and consider do you have evidence to substantiate that claim you've made there?

That there is the crux of this issue. I doubt it will be documented in their records at all making your access a futile and inflammatory exercise. But if you can prove that and then use evidence of a continuance of your role in the company (after you left) when that was stated it was not occurring then you have a good case.

Good luck in your new job though - you've always been very knowledgeable in your work area when we've spoken here so I am damn sure you'll be good at the job!
 
What were the conditions of your employment, were you a contractor or full time member of staff?
 
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agreed - either take it seriously and contact a solicitor or CAB, OR move on with your life and forget about it.

SAR will just inconvenience one individual who is tasked with getting the information - it will not cause a whole company problems.
 
I can see you are angry, and rightly so but to be honest i would just let it go and get on with your life. I have worked for utter gits and been let go for no reason myself... you can either get worked up and lose sleep over it or just move on and put your energy into something productive.

Life is too short to seek revenge unless its something REALLY bad!

Thats my advice anyway :p
 
Energize said:
Full time.
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Were you given any notice of redundancy. Any redundancy package etc?

Are you disputing the way the process was handle?

You will get limited if any useful information from a SAR's as has already been said.

You need to be specifically referenced, and even then elements can be redacted where it discusses sensitive to the business information that you are not entitled to even through a SAR's.
 
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