Guernsey States breached data protection over job reference

The Office of the Data Protection Authority said the jobseeker was exercising their rights

A jobseeker in Guernsey who lost out on work due to a reference has won the right to see it.

The individual was offered a States job, but that offer was withdrawn after a reference from a previous employer.

The Policy and Resources Committee (P&R) was found to have breached Data Protection Law by rejecting the applicant's request to see a copy.

P&R said it accepted the ruling but felt current interpretations of the law were "too narrow".

In a statement the ODPA said the jobseeker had exercised their rights under the 2017 Data Protection (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law to request a copy of the reference.

The ODPA said the job in question with not with P&R, but the data request was handled by the committee as human resources functions sit within its remit.

'Significant interests'

It added P&R refused the request because the document "contained information about other people".

The ODPA said P&R had decided the interests of the person who wrote the reference outweighed those of the jobseeker.

After an investigation, the ODPA said P&R had "not given appropriate consideration to the jobseeker's significant interests".

"Following the authority's investigation, P&R were found to have breached the law by failing to provide information that the jobseeker was entitled to receive under the right of access," the ODPA said.

The authority added it issued an enforcement order for P&R to provide the jobseeker with a copy of the reference with redactions agreed with the ODPA.

It confirmed P&R has provided the jobseeker with the reference as a result.

'Serious implications'

Responding to the ruling, P&R said it was "extremely concerned" that legal provisions around the confidentiality of references for job applicants might not be "sufficiently robust".

Its statement said: "The committee's view is that the ODPA's current interpretation of the law in Guernsey is too narrow and creates a situation where employers will feel unable to provide honest feedback in a reference, effectively removing any real value of references altogether.

"The committee believes this has serious implications for recruitment in Guernsey and therefore must be addressed."

It added that while it accepted the decision on this case, it intended to discuss with the Home Affairs Committee what changes should be made to the island's current data protection laws.

"Without a change, the island is not aligned with England and Wales," P&R said.

"The committee hopes this will lead to changes that ensure the law provides much greater certainty that job references should be treated as confidential in the hands of both the past employer and prospective employer."