Requesting HR File?

[ComeToTheCoast]

Hi, I'm completely clueless about this sort of thing so all advice is welcome!

I had something put on my HR file that I'm not happy about (I queried something that was denied but has now turned out to be true) so can i ask to see my file? Do i contact HR direct and do i phone or email (people have been reported for sending emails as apparently it makes things "official")?
Also is this request confidential?

Is it emailed or sent to me? And if I am unhappy with what's there can i request it is looked at or removed? What is the process involved in this? Will I get in trouble if the request is denied?

The company I work for has changed a lot over the past year or so (new higher management etc) and there's a real climate of fear at the moment. For example there are things happening at the moment that staff aren't happy about but no one is willing to go to the union (apparently they're rubbish anyway) or query these things through fear of repercussions. I don't want to get into more trouble than I feel I'm already in!

Also, could anything on my file stop me getting another job?

Sorry for all the questions but thanks in advance!

Most companies only give basic factual references - i.e. length of service, job titles and absence record. Unless you are dismissed for gross misconduct nothing else will appear to a new employer.

If a new employer knows your current manager then phone calls can happen, and that is naughty but difficult to prove. However since all that happened is a comment was placed on your HR file - not even a disciplinary - I doubt that this would be their first thought of you. Where I used to work almost everyone had some sort of comment in their file.

HR will probably relay any query to your manager. The only rule is that managers cannot divulge anything passed on to employees below a certain grade or those unaffected e.g. direct line manager may be told in strict confidence, but your colleagues should be oblivious unless you tell them.

Thanks RC.

You have a right under the Freedom of Information Act to see anything written about you. It's called a Subject Access Request.

You submit the request to HR, using a template you can get from the Information Commissioners website. Here is a link

ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/principle-6-rights/subject-access-request/

They have 40 days maximum to respond with the information.

It is your legal right, so if they retaliate against your request, they are breaking the law.

Thank you Daisy.

It isn't under the freedom of information act, it is under the data protection act 1998. Make sure you use the right legislation as they may refuse to release information under FOI and it will delay things.

There are various exemptions under the DP act so it may not be as simple as them just releasing the whole file to you, but yes if you think there is something on there that is inaccurate then you can ask them to change this.

Thank you Emma.

You definitely can request sight of it. The time for the request is so some idiot (ie me) could hang out in the filing room destroying anything you might object to.

Always felt a deeply unacceptable part of the job particularly when HR Managers would slip a quick photocopy of something just in case before i shredded it.

Ive had better jobs.

Yeah it's definitely a subject access request you have to make. Where I work it goes through legal services first and you can say you want a copy (posted to you or collected) or you can go into HR to have a look. If you send the request straight to HR though they'll be able to sort it. Might help to be quite specific, ie say you want anything held hard-copy and electronically. There shouldn't actually be anything there you're not already aware of (sighs, if living in an ideal world!!).
Hope it goes OK x

Poodle, are you saying HR got you to destroy key documents specifically so they wouldn't show up in the SAR materials

Yup FOI is for public authorities, SAR is as a consequence of DP Act.

If you use the preprepared template, all the key information is already pre-Populated. Every HR department in the land knows what an SAR is - they dread them!

With us, you apparently have to physically go to HR and read it in a secure room. Can't remember whether you're allowed to take copies of anything (may not have been told.)

Every organisation will have different processes but the bottom line is you are allowed to see everything held about you with very few exceptions (e.g subject to legal privilege). If your HR dept are destroying things and this is later found out they can face a huge fine - a very silly thing to do! The same goes for e-mails, deleting them does not make them disappear and there has been a lot of case law about the lengths an organisation should go to to access and release information. If you find inaccurate information held about you, you have a legal right to request this to be amended.