Experience of subject access requests?

Energize

Energize

Energize

Caporegime
Joined
12 Mar 2004
Posts
29,951
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?
 
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.
Click to expand...

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?
 
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.
 
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?
 
I have just noticed a login to my Facebook and old google+ account after my employment was terminated, information has been modified and the ip address is from my old employer!

Syla5 said:
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.
Click to expand...

Tbh I simply suspected it was other less legal reasons than the ones they stated, especially because of prior hr meetings and a more junior employee was kept on. I was given Payment in lieu of the standard one months notice.
 
Last edited:
Xordium said:
What information has been modified?
Click to expand...

Files have been deleted and some modified to redact information relating to the company, but possibly more than that.

Just running a diff command between my backup and the data on there now.

Nothing has ever given me greater joy than the thought of the woman who made this decision being raked over the coals in a criminal investigation under the computer misuse act

Syla5 said:
What were the specific reasons they gave?
Click to expand...

That's all they've said so far, haven't been given anything in writing yet.


Judging by what you have said already, they have said they don't have enough work to go around. This is a perfectly valid reason. Just because you think they have enough work for you, doesn't mean they do.
You say they kept on a more junior employee to continue to do what work was around so in all likeliness it seems like there is work around, but from the companies perspective not enough for two of you. If they are looking at cost saving then keeping the junior employee is probably part of this as well.
Click to expand...

On the contrary I had a list of work to go through and much of it was still not done. The junior employee does not have the pre-requisite knowledge to do this work.

The way you are coming across in this thread makes me feel like we are not getting the getting all the facts here, even this considered, you have been given a fair and valid reason and not only given your notice but paid for the month in lieu of doing the work!

Move on, be a better person, do you really think that bitterness and spite are the best ways to handle this? What if your manager providing references hears about the SAR's, gets tied up in working the request, and you waste a load of his time, do you honestly think he is going to be so forthcoming with a glowing reference when you have ****ed him about?
Click to expand...

As I have said my reference has already been sorted. He was actually the one who mentioned it to me in the first place. Why do you think he is going over the companies head? He does not give a **** what he does on company time.
 
Last edited:
No. If there no information to be gained then there is no point, and a colleague recently relayed to me some information which will cause a criminal court to compel them to exert a far more thorough investigation than a SAR ever could. It seems that this one person has made themselves disliked by so many other employees it's not just me that's after them.
 
HangTime said:
Why does your previous employer have access to your social media accounts, did you use them to post information as part of your employment?
Click to expand...

There was a session open on my computer when I left, as per work policy we are allowed to use the internet for personal use at appropriate times.
 
Oh does anyone know how a month is defined in work contracts usually? My contract says 1 month notice, but in the letter I've received, it says 4 weeks, which is less than 1 months pay, is this correct or do they owe me a normal full months salary?
 
I've made my legal disclosures and I am now just watching the fireworks go off as I settle into my new job. My contacts there have reported that the company is now in disarray and are all having a good laugh. :D Watching the circus is always enjoyable. I will have no further dealings with them other than to settle the computer misuse matter with the police.
 
Last edited:
Looks like due to litigation I will now have to submit a subject access request after all.

What sort of information from my personal file can I request? Can I request the dates that policies and contracts were uploaded/submitted to the hr system and whether I accepted them or not?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom