Terminated Employment after 24 years

[toffeenose80]

Hello everyone, first time posting. So on Friday I my employment was terminated after 24 years at local government for something I didn't know I was doing wrong. My 10 year old son is ADHD and ASD and I applied for an EHCP for him which was rejected in January, they failed to send me the appeal letter for mediation with the rejection letter and ongoing chasing to get this to no avail. I logged an official complaint which I should have got a reply in 10 working days. Day 24 came and nothing so I tried to escalate it and accessed what I thought I could as I created it. The head of the department complained that I emailed and it blew up an investigation of a security breach that I had tried to expedite my complaint which I clearly didn't as if they had given updates the complaint wouldn't have been made in the first place. We have real struggles on a daily basis with our boy we knew that a normal mainstream school would be throwing him in to a lions den so we needed a special school, one that he could do GCSE's as he is clever hence the need for an ECHP. Now being ADHD myself I have my struggles also more so the shortage in medication. This has also had a detrimental effect on my mental heath as I feel in life nothing has been straight forward and have had to struggle to get things.

Can anyone give any advice as I am going to appeal the decision as they have been really harsh with it. I know I have done wrong now but at the time I didn't, I expected a final written warning at most but they said I should have known the policies etc. There are that many so it's difficult to process everything with my brain. They said that it was serious misconduct even so they didn't deem it serious enough to suspend me or report it to the ICO. This happened in March so 4 months I have had to go Ito work with worry, people noticing I am not my chatty self and me having to lie to friends and colleagues saying I have issues at home.

I’m sorry you’re struggling OP, and it’s not totally clear what has happened from your OP, but if you have done what it sounds like you have done then it doesn’t matter whether you knew or not, what matters is that you SHOULD have known e.g. policies in the workplace that it is your responsibility to know, which is why you can be let go for this.

If I commit a security breach or act of gross misconduct at work it is not a defence for me to say I didn’t know, if I should have.

You accessed a file relating to your son?

You can't possibly say you didn't know that was inappropriate. In every government / council role you'd have been warned about the consequences of accessing data and systems for personal purposes.

Are you in a union?

Frankly, I'd agree you can try to appeal but you need to be realistic that it does indeed amount to gross misconduct in every business area.

What do your council processes say about making such an appeal? On what basis are you appealing under the processes?

I'm sorry you've been going through such a difficult time, it's awful losing a job.

But yes I would agree with the above posters, unfortunately ignorance of policy is not a defence. If I had employed someone for 24 years I'd expect them to know the policies inside out back to front to be honest. Especially the policies around accessing data for personal use, it's something they're very heavy handed about warning people about.

By all means appeal, as is your right, but I think you must start processing acceptance that the appeal won't get you anywhere if you've violated security policies. They take this sort of thing incredibly seriously, with good reason.

It does appear that you have acted inappropriately, you could try arguing that it was your data etc, but I think you'll find it very hard to argue.

Presumably at some point you had received the relevant training, and they have proof that you completed a course etc?

The only leverage you may have is why was't it reported to the ICO?
i.e. if it wasn't serious enough to report, how can it I be gross mis-conduct.

Regardless you need to seek professional legal advice.

It’s always worth appealing, but as part of that you need to be clear on what they’ve actually terminated your employment for.

As that’s what you’re appealing.

If it’s a data protection breach, and you accessed data that you wouldn’t have a reason to access as part of your role, and you’ve had data management / data protection training then that’s fairly clear cut.

If their complaint is that you looked up an email address and used it to contact someone about a complaint, then they’re stretching a bit. If your council has email addresses that are easy to guess then that’s not protected data.

From what I understand you work for your local council, and accessed documents that you weren't supposed too, for personal use? I appreciate the information accessed is your own details. Unfortunately, in most businesses that would equate to gross misconduct. You would have known accessing these documents was not permitted, and I'm not sure not having a response within the required timeframe would be enough mitigating circumstances, to be honest. By all means appeal, but I'm not sure you'll get anywhere. It's a bit like me working in a school, and passing my personal details onto a student, and then claiming I didn't know it wasn't allowed. It's not only common sense, but it's a standard policy within every school.

It sounds very much like this would classify as Gross Misconduct.

If you’ve had any Data Protection/Privacy training then one of the key messages will have been that you are only allowed to access and use information in a way that is reasonable for you to perform your job role.

You knew that every other parent would not have been able to self access the information you accessed about the progress of your complaint. You knew that you didn’t need to access it to perform your job role and you knew that there was a process for you to gain access to it legitimately through a Subject Access Request.

if they have a written policy that has been made available to you, and you have acknowledge through the signing of a staff handbook or similar then I very much doubt you will have adequate grounds for a successful appeal.

You abused your position to illegitimately gain information you did not have the right to access and that would in most companies fall under the definition of Gross Misconduct.

Im sorry that it’s affected your mental health and I hope you are able to gain support for that, if I were you then I would be focusing on what your plans are for alternative employment rather than expending too much mental energy on what I suspect will be a losing effort.

I’m not sure I’ve understood this properly, but my understanding is that you accessed your son’s record on Liquid Logic ID (or whatever system your employer uses to store records on)? Is that correct?

you did not know that breaching data protection act was wrong after 24 years in a local government role?

you fucked up

Are you in a union. Have they been representing you.?

I've worked in local government and also in the NHS for over 30 years. There's no way you didn't know this was against policy.

It is always worth appealing.

Let me get this straight.
You have ben waiting for the outcome of the EHCP of your son. You've put in a complaint because of the delay and then not received a reply in the policy timeframe, so you looked up on the database to see if you can find out anything. This has been spotted and you have been dismissed as a consequence.

You can appeal

• were the council's disciplinary policies followed in full
• did you receive training on data protection for your role. This is important as you claim you didn't know that what you did was wrong at the time.

Must admit I find this a bit hard to believe. I work for a local authority and have no access to any databases but still have annual mandatory training on data protection.

In respect of your son's EHCP - I suggest you contact your local councillor for their input and support

And as for a report to ICO

a) They may have done this and just not told you
b) It’s unlikely this would have met the threshold for needing to be reported to ICO. If they were able to view through audit logs of your system use that this was the only file that you illegitimately accessed.

What breaches do we need to notify the ICO?
You only have to notify the ICO of a breach if it is likely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of individuals. If left unaddressed such a breach is likely to have a significant detrimental effect on individuals. For example:

• result in discrimination;
• damage to reputation;
• financial loss; or
• loss of confidentiality or any other significant economic or social disadvantage.

In more serious cases, for example those involving victims and witnesses, a personal data breach may cause more significant detrimental effects on individuals. You have to assess this on a case by case basis and you need to be able to justify your decision to report a breach to the Information Commissioner.

I think your only mitigating factor here might be mental health in defence - you were incredibly stressed so acted out of character for you. Coupled with factors such as not having had training on GDPR, was proper process followed.
Best bet is speak to a union or if you are not in a union speak to ACAS. What outcome do you want?

I would strongly warn against tribunal, this destroys people and you would be a shell of yourself, sounds like you have enough on your plate.

I would speak to ACAS. Your only hope is to claim mental health issues and undue pressure because of your son which drove you to irriational/extreme measures. I'm sure you would've known that accessing a confidential file was breaking the rules, especially after 24 years of working there. I don't work for local government but I know what's an absolute "no no" in most workplaces.