Many thanks for all the replies. As someone pointed out, the rules for
sickness records are covered in part 2 of the Employment Code of
Practice on pages 24&25, though that still isn't entirely clear whether
a simple record of absence is SPD or not. But in any case the processing
required by sickness records and absence records is different, so that's
why it's correct to have separate forms in different places.
The Code says:
1. Keep sickness and accident records separately from absence
records. Do not use sickness or accident records for a particular
purpose when records of absence could be used instead.
2. Ensure that the holding and use of sickness and accident records
satisfies a sensitive data condition.*
3. Only disclose information from sickness or accident records
about a worker's illness, medical condition or injury where there is a
legal obligation to do so, where it is necessary for legal proceedings
or where the worker has given explicit consent to the disclosure.
4. Do not make the sickness, accident or absence records of
individual workers available to other workers, other than to provide
managers with information about those who work for them in so far as
this is necessary for them to carry out their managerial roles.
* There is a note that although the law is not clear on this, the IC
"takes the view that an employer keeping and using sickness records in a
reasonable manner is likely to satisfy one of the other sensitive data
conditions", without requiring employees to consent explicitly to every
step of processing.
I'm reassured to discover we are doing it right after all - sometimes
Data Protection is common sense, it seems :-)
All the best,
Andrew
--------------------
Andrew Cormack
Chief Security Advisor
UKERNA, Atlas Centre, Chilton, Didcot, Ox11 0QS, UK
Phone: +44 (0)1235 822302
Fax: +44 (0)1235 822399
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