This issue is not going away. Following the Union’s last Newsletter, the Times, Guardian and BBC published stories about Mr. Charlie Nunn’s recent ‘town hall’ events when he acknowledged staff were deeply concerned about the trawling of their personal bank accounts.
Members who wrote to Mr. Nunn have received letters justifying the Bank’s actions. Members have been told that Lloyds: “created aggregated statistics about customers receiving monthly Lloyds Banking Group Salaries.”. The letter goes onto say: “these statistics contained no personal information.”. If that’s the case and it’s got nothing to hide, Lloyds should publish all the information it claims to have shared with the in-house staff unions. If it refuses, it will be because it knows that what it did contravenes the Data Protection Act. We believe the Information Commissioner will come to the same conclusion.
In his now infamous speech, Mr. Nunn justified the data trawling of staff accounts saying: “It was a legal use case of using aggregated data for a relevant business outcome.” In its data protection notice, which Lloyds is relying on to justify its actions, it says: “A legitimate interest is when we have a business case or commercial reason to use your information. Even then, it must not unfairly go against your rights…”. What Lloyds did “goes against” the data protection rights of its staff.
The ICO Guidance on ‘legitimate interests’, which is most frequently used by employers for processing employee data, explains that determining whether this justification applies can be broken down into three parts: whether the processing is for a legitimate interest; whether it’s necessary for that purpose; and whether the interests, rights and freedoms of the data subject [Lloyds staff] override that legitimate interest. The information Lloyds accessed wasn’t needed for “business planning including production of management information” purposes but was used to justify its salary proposals. The data Lloyds processed wasn’t necessary to determine whether staff were ‘financially resilient’ or not. Lloyds could have obtained that information by less intrusive means.
We are aware that some members have received responses from Lloyds regarding the data trawling. The Union is putting together responses for members to send to Lloyds and the Financial Ombudsman Service. Those will be going out next week.
MEMBERS SHOULD PASS THIS NEWSLETTER ON TO THEIR COLLEAGUES IN HALIFAX & LLOYDS SO THEY TOO CAN BENEFIT FROM THE ONLY INDEPENDENT TRADE UNION IN LLOYDS BANKING GROUP.