GDPR PRIVACY NOTICE
Peak (or the “Company”) is committed to protecting the personal data of all prospective, current and former employees that we collect during their employment and provision of associated services. The Company is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations. This Privacy Notice summarises:
- Who ‘we’ are
- The categories of data we collect and the purposes of processing
- Who has access to your data
- How we retain and protect your data
- Your rights under Data Protection law
- How you can contact us
1. Who are “we”?
Peak Scientific Instruments Limited is the data controller in respect of the information covered by this Privacy Notice.
2. What information does Peak collect?
The Company collects a range of information about you. This includes:
- Your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number
- Details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history
- Information about your current level of remuneration, including benefit entitlements
- Information about your entitlement to work in the UK
The Company may also collect and process “special categories” of sensitive personal data. This includes:
- Equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about your ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health and religion or belief
3. How does Peak collect personal data?
The Company collects this information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be contained in application forms, CVs or resumes, obtained from your passport or other identity documents, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment , including online tests.
The Company will also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers, information from employment background check providers and information from criminal record checks (where relevant). The Company will seek information from third parties only once a job offer to you has been made and will inform you that it is doing so.
4. Where is personal data stored?
Data will be stored on your application record, in secure HR management systems and on other IT systems (including email).
5. Why does Peak process personal data?
The Company does not process any data for employment purposes based on consent, and has identified an number of other lawful bases for processing your personal data.
- Peak has a legitimate interest in processing personal data during the recruitment process and for keeping records of the process. Processing data from job applicants allows the Company to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm a candidate's suitability for employment and decide to whom to offer a job. The Company may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.
- Where the Company relies on legitimate interests as a reason for processing data, it has considered whether or not those interests are overridden by the rights and freedoms of employees or workers and has concluded that they are not
- In some cases, the Company needs to process data to ensure that it is complying with its legal obligations; e.g. we are required to check a successful applicant's eligibility to work in the UK before employment starts
- Where Peak processes other special categories of data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health or religion or belief, this is for equal opportunities monitoring purposes
- The Company processes health information if it needs to make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process for candidates who have a disability, and so fulfil obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment
- For some roles, the Company is obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences. Where the Company seeks this information, it does so because it is necessary for it to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.
- Peak needs to process data to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you, and also needs to process your data to enter into a contract with you
The Company will not use your data for any purpose other than the recruitment exercise for which you have applied.
Peak’s recruitment processes are not based on automated decision-making.
You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to the Company during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, the Company may not be able to process your application properly, or at all.
6. Who has access to personal data?
Your information will be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes members of the HR and recruitment team, interviewers involved in the recruitment process, managers in the business area with a vacancy and IT staff, if access to the data is necessary for the performance of their roles.
The Company will not share your data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and it makes you an offer of employment. The Company will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you[, and employment background check providers to obtain necessary background checks.
Peak will not transfer your data to other 3rd parties outside the European Economic Area and the UK.
7. How does Peak protect personal data?
The Company takes the security of your data seriously. It has internal policies and controls in place to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by our employees in the proper performance of their duties.
8. For how long does Peak keep data?
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected or to comply with legal, regulatory or internal policy requirements.
Data related to applications submitted by external candidates (i.e. individuals not currently employed by us) are by default only retained for 2 years.
Based on the legitimate interests outlined in section 5 above, we need to retain the personal data of unsuccessful applicants for a minimum period of 6 months. Should you wish us to delete your data after that point then please contact us using the details provided below in section 10.
If your application for employment is successful, personal data gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to your personnel file and retained during your employment. The periods for which your data will be held will be provided to you in a new privacy notice.
9. What are my rights?
As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:
- Request a copy of your data (known as a data subject access request);
- Require Peak to change incorrect or incomplete data;
- Require the Company to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing;
- Object to the processing of your data where the Company is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing; and
- Ask the Company to stop processing data for a period if data is inaccurate or there is a dispute about whether or not your interests override the Company's legitimate grounds for processing data.
10. How can I contact Peak?
If you would like to exercise any the rights referred to above, please contact Donald Hay, Peak Scientific, Fountain Crescent, Inchinnan Business Park, Inchinnan PA4 9RE
Email: dhay@peakscientific.com
You can make a data subject access request by completing the Company's form for making a subject access request which is available from the above email address or from HR@peakscientific.com.
If you believe that Peak has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.