The reasons why I said this is a very rare and "beautiful" case have been correctly pinpointed: all the possible ingredients of misleading advertising within job vacancies announcements are lined up for us to discover that the entire european data protection legislation is completely ignored, and apparently in a legal way, in particular the principles of notice and proportionality of collection.
Charles, perhaps one can say that… the essential is invisible to the eye?
Brunella Longo
http://www.brunellalongo.co.uk
--- On Sat, 14/5/11, CHARLES OPPENHEIM <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: CHARLES OPPENHEIM <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Job Vacancies and possible Misleading Advertising (about Head of the Human Capital & Knowledge Management at EFSA, Parma, Italy)
To: [log in to unmask], "Brunella Longo" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Saturday, 14 May, 2011, 7:36
I have checked the contents of the advert and associated documents and can find no justification for the claim that they might breach data protection legislation. Perhaps Brunella could point us to the text in the advert/documents that she is referring to, and precisely what clauses of the legislation it breaches.....
Charles
Professor Charles Oppenheim
--- On Fri, 13/5/11, Brunella Longo <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Brunella Longo <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Job Vacancies and possible Misleading Advertising (about Head of the Human Capital & Knowledge Management at EFSA, Parma, Italy)
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Friday, 13 May, 2011, 14:09
For those who are keen on moving abroad, the European Food Safety Authority (Parma, Italy) has published several new Job Vacancies Announcements at:
<http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/aboutefsa/jobs.htm>
Among these one is for a "Head of the “Human Capital & Knowledge Management” Unit" (this Unit is said to start from January 2012 on but you may not notice that).
I am publicising the announcement because it is probably the first case in which I see confirmed in a very tidy way all the necessary ingredients that qualify job vacancies announcements as a type of "misleading advertising" with serious concerns about the application of the European Data Protection Legislation arising from it too.
And... I pretty much keen on publicising myself too :) as I am working and studying the regulatory and governance aspects of these complex information management situations having experienced them myself as a candidate for more than two years with hundreds of applications submitted (and partly documented last year through my CPD-Wiki).
A part from the ethical aspects of the recruitment procedures, the case is also interesting from an Interface / Web Design point of view (it is extremely difficult to make the user aware of the "pretext" that determine the overall meaning of a recruitment campaign and its organisational and legal context).
But at least the EFSA Web Portal has presented all the available information in such a way that allows to understand nature, scope and success criteria of the recruitment operation.
Here is my brief structured analysis.
The job vacancy announcement is managed and monitored within a "campaign" (see at <http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/aboutefsa/jobs.htm> the document "Status of recruitment").
It is the candidate choice to assess, trust and balance the "evidence" that:
A) the announcement is presented via a main page in which the "full vacancy detail" has pretty much less visual importance compared with the so called "action button" <APPLY NOW> at:
<http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/vacancies/vacancy/efsaxad2011007.htm>
AND
B) the announcement has very firmly stated and tidely presented clear elements though not at all clarified from a Data Protection point of view:
1) an approaching deadline (25/05/2011 at midnight)
2) a Job "Starting Date" said to be "As soon as possible"
3) a type of contract said to be "a temporary contract"
4) a note in the description in which is clearly specified the vacancy does not exist at present ("The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has set up a selection procedure that aims to establish a reserve list for Agents for" the advertised post):
AND
C) there is plenty of others "reserve lists" of people interested in applying for future work that normally become "extended" (see the document "Reserve Lists" at <http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/aboutefsa/jobs.htm>).
In sum, one can say that… "evidence" of what you understand may be all in your mind :)
Brunella Longo
Information Management Advisor, Project Manager Prince2 Practitioner, Independent Scholar
7 New College Court
London NW3 5EX
T +44 (0)20 72095014 - 77229184 / +44 (0) 75 49921488 (mobile)
http://www.brunellalongo.co.uk - http://www.brunellalongo.it
