Consent to send a reference
Discussion
Has anyone else come across this?
Currently in the process of applying for a new job. I am waiting on my reference from my current employer to get my formal offer and contact. I've passed everything else.
It's bad enough my manger or the HR manager at work can't do the reference, it needs to go to head office. Ball ache but not the end of the world.
However, they won't do that until I send them a consent form saying they can give them that information. No one at work has ever heard of this consent form. It's not mentioned in any policies for references or anything. They can email one to me on Monday however.
What makes it more annoying is that I am in the process of a mortgage application and need my new contact before I can get the mortgage. They have agreed it based on this new salary not my current one.
Pain in the arse...surely this isn't normal?
Currently in the process of applying for a new job. I am waiting on my reference from my current employer to get my formal offer and contact. I've passed everything else.
It's bad enough my manger or the HR manager at work can't do the reference, it needs to go to head office. Ball ache but not the end of the world.
However, they won't do that until I send them a consent form saying they can give them that information. No one at work has ever heard of this consent form. It's not mentioned in any policies for references or anything. They can email one to me on Monday however.
What makes it more annoying is that I am in the process of a mortgage application and need my new contact before I can get the mortgage. They have agreed it based on this new salary not my current one.
Pain in the arse...surely this isn't normal?
This is most likely as a result of the GDPR. Organisations require a lawful basis to process you personal data (there are a handful of pre-defind basis in the regulation). One of these is consent. If they feel that none of the other basis can be applied, then they are obliged to obtain your consent. If the were to share your data without a lawful basis, they would be breaking the law, and in theory / taken to the extreme, open to a very large fine.
You could argue that what they are doing is a good thing (though inconvenient for you on this occasion), as it demonstrates that they are taking their data protection obligations seriously.
You could argue that what they are doing is a good thing (though inconvenient for you on this occasion), as it demonstrates that they are taking their data protection obligations seriously.
. Does anyone know if GPDR or whatever way round it is would stop a reference being sent via email? I've had a reply at last saying its been sent via post due to GPDR. Sounds a load of rubbish to me (bare in mind the request has come from a official government email address and not some gmail one.
LosingGrip said:
Does anyone know if GPDR or whatever way round it is would stop a reference being sent via email? I've had a reply at last saying its been sent via post due to GPDR. Sounds a load of rubbish to me (bare in mind the request has come from a official government email address and not some gmail one.
Bit odd. We accept refs from company email addresses (not generic gmail, hotmail etc). Post is a last resort.LosingGrip said:
Does anyone know if GPDR or whatever way round it is would stop a reference being sent via email? I've had a reply at last saying its been sent via post due to GPDR. Sounds a load of rubbish to me (bare in mind the request has come from a official government email address and not some gmail one.
Lots of businesses (and indeed their lawyers) don't really know how to interpret GDPR. This has led to a lot of businesses taking very risk averse (and probably wrong) approaches to its implementation. My old employer (an international law firm!) had said you could not reach out to a client to extend a personal invitation to an event without explicit written consent - which is frankly nonsense. Integroo said:
LosingGrip said:
Does anyone know if GPDR or whatever way round it is would stop a reference being sent via email? I've had a reply at last saying its been sent via post due to GPDR. Sounds a load of rubbish to me (bare in mind the request has come from a official government email address and not some gmail one.
Lots of businesses (and indeed their lawyers) don't really know how to interpret GDPR. This has led to a lot of businesses taking very risk averse (and probably wrong) approaches to its implementation. My old employer (an international law firm!) had said you could not reach out to a client to extend a personal invitation to an event without explicit written consent - which is frankly nonsense. There are many bits of GDPR that may have made your company take this approach. email is known not to be safe. Whether that is from people spoofing (i.e. pretending to be a new employer asking for a reference, using a very similar domain), to your SysAdmin having access to your mail system, to your emails being transmitted in clear text. Rightly or wrongly, your organisation may have decided to mitigate these risks by saying that email is not to be used for certain types of data (including your reference)
If you worked at GCHQ, I am sure this would seem logical. Working for a national retail store maybe not! However, rightly or wrongly, it is quite likely that the GDPR is the reason they have come to the policy they have.
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