Private medical information

[Queen of the bongo]

I work for a fairly well known company. I have been off work sick for some time but have now returned to work. In order to bring myself up to speed with matters during my absence I have been reading the company board papers. I was horrified to read that one of the items was "Mrs X (me) has been off ill with XXXXX since XXX-2008" except it didn't say 'X' it gave my name and what was wrong with me.

 

I was quite anxious about returning to work but now I am mortified, these board papers would have been circulated to around 50 people including outside agencies, colleagues and the board members. I want to raise a grievance and probably follow up with legal action but I am not sure what the case law would be. Is it employment or data protection issue.

 

I have a fairly high profile position with the company, and a good salary. I am seriously embarrassed and distressed by this. Furious too.

 

Many thanks

[elche]

Queen of the Bongo - A great manu chao song! Love the name.

 

An interesting situation.

 

I would never advise an employer to divulge personal information about one employee, especially something so personal as their medical condition, to other employees.

 

I think this practice is very poor, and can imagine you consider it most annoying.

 

However, one wonders, 'What can you do about this?'

 

I am no expert on remedies in respect of breaches of Data Protection. I wonder whether there potential breaches there?

 

In respect of Employment Law, unless there is a specific clause in your Contract of Employment, prohibiting such a disclosure, I think your options are somewhat limited.

 

Firstly, raise the matter as a grievance. If you have over one years service, would you afterwards consider a constructive dismissal claim? - a brave move in the current economic climate.

 

Interested to hear any other opinions on plausible options?

Edited October 24, 2008 by elche

[pompeyfaith]

I would advise you to seek the help of acas here as they have a duty of confidentiality.

 

Acas - How can we help?

 

Regards

 

Leon

[Queen of the bongo]

Thanks I think grievance will be the first move, as you say constructive dismissal is only for the brave at the moment.

 

I find this all unbelievable. I have been 'googling' to see if anything similar may have happened in the past but of course no employer has ever been that stupid. I also suspect there may have been a bit of malicious intent there on the part of someone.

 

Any other advice welcome

 

Many thanks

 

Queen of the Bongo (bong)

[Weird Al Yankovic]

Thanks I think grievance will be the first move, as you say constructive dismissal is only for the brave at the moment.

 

I find this all unbelievable. I have been 'googling' to see if anything similar may have happened in the past but of course no employer has ever been that stupid. I also suspect there may have been a bit of malicious intent there on the part of someone.

 

Any other advice welcome

 

Many thanks

 

Queen of the Bongo (bong)

 

Hello

 

Firstly, you were off sick for sometime, one assumes you were therefore in contact with your employers? And your GP communicated with your work?

 

Did you attend your employer's OH, if they have one?

 

Who is this 'malicious' individual you suspect?

 

It already appears a breach of trust with regard to your employment. I'll reserve a comment on data protection until you answer the above.

[Queen of the bongo]

I work for a small subsidiary of a major parent company. The subsidiary was set up to undertake a specific project, it is a small but skilled professional team of approx 7 employees who are supported by an army of consultants etc. The company has no HR department, no manuals, no policies. We have proper and well written employment contracts though.

 

I have been away from work for four months. After less than one week of illness I received a medical report consent form which I did not complete as I thought it was a bit excessive bearing in mind I had only been away for 5 days (I have had no time off sick in two years prior) The consent form had been sent by a colleague with whom I had a bad working relationship and I felt he was being 'funny' and that it was none of his business to be contacting my GP. Since then I have sent in Dr's certificates regularly and have not been contacted by the company at all in relation to my health/well being.

 

The person (Mr Malicious) that published my 'personals' in the board report, is the colleague referred to previously. He is very competitive and has less service with the company than myself. I think it is a bit of professional jealousy. There is a lot of office politics in play particularly at the parent company and sometimes the working relationships become strained - lots of Alpha males. Strangely though I did quite like working there, I am the only woman and get on well with the majority and feel I have a calming influence.

 

But this thing with the Board report has pretty much destroyed my confidence now and I am hiding at my desk.

 

I am 100% certain it is a breach of the implied term of trust and confidence, and probably a whole lot of other things as well (sex discrim?). But as Elche says, times are hard; I can't really walk our of my job and claim constructive and sit at home for months with no pay waiting for a tribunal to decide. So can I take another route and pursue legal action for some sort of privacy breach? in addition to say, a grievance. That's why I asked about Data Protection.

[p_cas]

Who did you send the doctor's certificate to? Is this colleague senior to you? How or why did he get to see your certificate?

 

Not sure why you mention sex discrimination? How is this relevant?

 

In any case I think I'd go down the grievance procedure route rather than talk about legal action etc etc but I'm not sure why, if your illness is so embarrassing, you would send in a doctor's certificate to a colleague in your office? Alternatively, again without knowing your illness, if it could be construed as a disability maybe it would be right that people were aware so that adjustments could be made? Difficult to say without knowing more detail though.

[kfdh1962]

the grievance route is definately one worth pursuing. in terms of claims you may have a reasonable argument at a tribunal of injury to feelings..

 

pursue the grievance route first...if this is formally made in writing they are legally obliged to investigate this and respond within 28 days ( i think that time frame is right?), Think about what outcome you desire as this should be considered at the grievnace,

 

then if you are not happy with the outcome you could still consider a claim if you still wished

[Queen of the bongo]

The certificate was sent to our team administrator, what happened to it after that I do not know as I was away from the office. My illness was not embarrassing, it was just a private matter and did not need to be brought to the attention of so many people.

 

Grievance it is then. Thanks