Job Applicant Privacy Notice
Introduction
As part of any recruitment process, A-Gas (the “Company”) collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. The Company is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.
A-Gas is the ‘Data Controller’ under the General Data Protection Regulation. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal data about you. You are being sent a copy of this privacy notice because you are applying for work with us (whether as an employee, worker or contractor). It makes you aware of how and why your personal data will be used, namely for the purposes of the recruitment exercise, and how long it will usually be retained for.
What Information does the Company 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;
- whether or not you have a disability for which the Company needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process;
- the results of any individual psychometric assessments; and
- information about your entitlement to work in the UK and Europe
The Company collects this information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be contained in application forms, CVs, or collected through interviews and other forms of assessment, including online tests.
Upon formally accepting an offer of employment with A-Gas, 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 for some roles, information from credit reference agencies, and information from criminal records checks. As above, 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.
Data will be stored in a range of different places, including on your application record, in HR management systems and on other IT systems (including email).
Why Does the Company Process Personal Data?
The Company needs to process data to take steps to assess your skills, qualifications and suitability for the role, communicate to you about the recruitment processes and keep records related to our hiring processes. It also needs to process your data to enter into a contract with you if you are successfully appointed.
In some cases, the Company needs to process data to ensure that it is complying with its legal obligations. For example, it is required to check a successful applicant's eligibility to work in the UK and Europe before employment starts.
The Company 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.
The Company processes health information if it needs to make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process for candidates who have a disability. This is to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.
Where the Company processes other special categories of data, such as information about ethnic origin, marital status, health or religion or belief, this is for equal opportunities monitoring purposes and is only done once a job offer has been made and you have been informed accordingly.
For some roles, the Company is obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences but only at the point a job offer has been made. For information, 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.
The Company will not use your data for any purpose other than the recruitment exercise for which you have applied.
If your application is unsuccessful, the Company will keep your personal data on file in case there are future employment opportunities for which you may be suited. The Company will ask for your consent before it keeps your data for this purpose and you are free to withdraw your consent at any time.
Who Has Access to Data?
Your information will be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes members of the People and Culture 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 employment background check providers to obtain necessary background checks and the Disclosure and Barring Service to obtain necessary criminal records checks.
Due to the international nature of the A-Gas business, your data may be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA), for instance in connection with a secondment or permanent transfer to a different region, or in the context of a sale of some or all of its business. Data is transferred outside the EEA on the basis that the relevant safeguards e.g. declaration of adequacy, binding corporate rules or other safeguards were in place which would be confirmed at the time.
How Does the Company Protect 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. Please see the Company’s Data Protection Policy for details on our internal data security controls and system restrictions.
For How Long Does the Company Keep Data?
If your application for employment is unsuccessful, the Company will hold your data on file for 2 years after the end of the relevant recruitment process for consideration for future employment opportunities. At the end of that period (or once you withdraw your consent), your data is deleted or destroyed.
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.
Your Rights
As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:
- access and obtain a copy of your data on request;
- require the Company 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.
If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact a member of the People and Culture department at A-Gas.
If you believe that the Company has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner.
What if You Do Not Provide Personal Data?
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.
You are under no obligation to provide information for equal opportunities monitoring purposes and there are no consequences for your application if you choose not to provide such information.
Automated Decision-Making
Recruitment processes are not based solely on automated decision-making.
Monitoring and Review
This notice reflects the Company’s current practice. A-Gas will update the notice from time to time to reflect legal and operational requirements.