In our normal grievance procedure, after investigation of the grievance
(taking witness statements, obtaining evidence) we have a meeting to
'hear' the grievance. At that meeting, both sides attend with their
witnesses. The person raising the grievance states their case, and this
can be queried by the person against whom the grievance has been raised.
Witnesses are called, and their evidence can be queried by both sides -
it is a bit like a court-room drama, but intended to be less
confrontational. I think what I am saying here is that in fairness
allegations made against another person have to be made known to them so
they have the opportunity to put their own side. This does include
witness statements, so witnesses have to be aware of this when they make
their statements. However, this is all done through a very structured
process, where explanation of statements is possible, rather than just
handing them over.
Bullying and Harassment allegations are handled slightly differently,
because of the extra vulnerability of the individuals involved. But
again, if there are witness statements then these are very likely at a
certain stage to be made available to both sides, again in order to give
people the opportunity to put their own side.
In your case I think you might want to argue that statements will be
made available at the appropriate time (which is probably not now) in
the right context. It's a difficult balance, because you do want to
protect people who may be frightened, but on the other hand you don't
want to have systems in place where anonymous comments can be made by
vindictive individuals to get rid of someone they don't like. Hence
robust systems have to be in place, and more importantly, followed.
Where we have fallen flat on our faces is when we don't follow our own
procedures, I have learned to be quite obsessive about it now!
Anne
Anne Gadsden
Information Governance Officer
North Cumbria Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
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-----Original Message-----
From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lynda
Sent: 21 June 2007 15:01
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [data-protection] Query re Subject Access Request
We've recently had a grievance placed by 2 contractors (who may well be
'workers' or employees - investigating this now) about another
postholder - a volunteer (1).
One grievance alleges bullying, harassment and defamatory emails
designed to discredit and undermine and is backed up by several written
documents and copies of emails illustrating this. There is also a
further grievance from another contractor alleging similar and an email
from another volunteer (2) at managerial level who is aware of the
situation and is giving full support to the grievance. The grievance is
ongoing currently
We have now recieved an email from the volunteer (1) demanding to see
full copies of the emails from the 3 individuals above otherwise they're
threatening to put in a Subject Access Request. They are aware of the
emails and names of individuals who sent them due to a breach of
confidentiality which we're currently addressing. The contractors have
given us permission to send the volunteer (1) a summary of the content
of these emails but do not give us permission to send the emails in
their entirety. They are worried about further bullying and harassment
if their emails are forwarded.
In view of what the volunteer (1) already knows, it is impossible for us
to anonymise the emails by removing the name of the contractor and any
identifying data as the volunteer (1) will know who wrote them.
I'm aware that there is a duty of confidentiality between employer and
employee but not sure how this applies to employer and contractor in
this
situation.
Does anyone have any advice to offer? We don't have a lot of experience
in this field! Are we entitled to withhold the emails should a SAR be
submitted and should we even send a summary at this point? We will
obviously be summarising them to use as supportive evidence during
grievance meeting.
Thanks in advance
Lynda
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