Employment law question - Access to personal information

[Deleted User]

My wife called her payroll dept today to ask a few questions about her pension contributions.

She was told by payroll that all enquiries to them must be approved by her manager.

Is this legal? Surely under freedom of information we are entitled to request info relating to ourselves and have the right to do so without the express knowledge or consent of management.

Deijavoo

She will have freedom of information but as I understand it, she can obtain that info, but her company deem that this is the process to do so. 

I could be wrong mind. 

fatherjack

Information about a person is Data Protection.  You can ask an organization what data they hold about you, but there's a fee to pay.  I don't know if there are any provisions in law relating to providing pension information, . but pension schemes send annual statements to members anyway - is there a reason why your wife can't work from the last one of those?

[Deleted User]

It sounds to me like this process is in place in order to limit how often they have to spend time dealing with enquiries of this nature. Most companies adhere rigorously to all legal requirements - I sincerely doubt there is anything unlawful about what they have done.

Evilmags

Call the pension fund and not the company .hr department. Acting like jobsworth arseholes is in the DNA of HR departments. This is why in my firm we have external payroll and nothing else. HR basically stands for "rent seeking wastes of space, and every office I've worked in would have been much nicer without them...

randomhandclaps

Is her payroll department an external company?  If so then the payroll company is correct and will have permitted contacts.  In that case her first contact should be her line manager or human resources if the company have on.

Assuming it's a company pension scheme it's not strictly covered by freedom of information etc as she is perfectly entitled to ask her line manager or HR for any information she needs..  Once she asks her manager he has no right to refuse and is obliged to find the information.  It should be no big deal really and ultimately if she has any problems in gaining access it would be addressed as a work placed grievance rather than a complaint to the payroll - again this is more applicable if like 99.9% of pension scheme it's outsourced.

Fretwired

BigPaulie said:

My wife called her payroll dept today to ask a few questions about her pension contributions.

She was told by payroll that all enquiries to them must be approved by her manager.

Is this legal? Surely under freedom of information we are entitled to request info relating to ourselves and have the right to do so without the express knowledge or consent of management.

Your wife is entailed to access any personal information held by her employer or company engaged by her employer such as a payroll processing company. She should direct her request to her line manager or HR department.

chillidoggy

Any such requests in my company have to go through a manager, or be put in writing, and the responses are always returned in writing, too. I don't think they're refusing, she just had to follow protocol. It could also be for her protection, eg how do they know its definitely her on the phone?

[Deleted User]

Thanks all for the info.

If that's the law, fair enough. Sounds all wrong to me, but hey-ho.

What about confidentiality? I can imagine someone finding out they're in the early stages of a pregnancy (not our situation, btw) and enquiring about SMP etc before letting anyone know she's expecting. It seems wrong that she'd have to let her manager know at that stage.

randomhandclaps

Regarding maternity pay - She wouldn't have to let her manager know as this would be laid out in her contract of employment which legally she should have a copy of.  If not you would just ask for a copy without giving any more details than you wished to.

On the pension side, her manager or HR would just be acting as a middle-man like a postman delivering a letter so to speak.

chillidoggy

It might not be in her contract, and if not, it should in the attached terms and conditions (sometimes called a statement of written particulars), which would be referenced in the contract.

Fretwired

BigPaulie said:

Thanks all for the info.

If that's the law, fair enough. Sounds all wrong to me, but hey-ho.

What about confidentiality? I can imagine someone finding out they're in the early stages of a pregnancy (not our situation, btw) and enquiring about SMP etc before letting anyone know she's expecting. It seems wrong that she'd have to let her manager know at that stage.

If a woman knows she's pregnant then why wouldn't she want to tell their employer? She actually have more rights under employment law legislation. For example, if an employer was thinking about making some redundancies they'd be reluctant to fire a pregnant woman as she'll take them to a tribunal claiming unfair dismissal. Employers can’t change a pregnant employee’s contract terms and conditions without agreement - if they do they are in breach of contract.

Pregnant employees have four key rights: paid time off for antenatal care, maternity leave, maternity pay and protection against unfair treatment, discrimination or dismissal.

[Deleted User]

Well, as it doesn't apply to my situation, it's all academic. I just used pregnancy as an example. However, It's common practice for people not to officially announce a pregnancy until after the 12 week mark.

If a female wants to keep it to herself, it's her prerogative.

I can also imagine that a female who was planning a pregnancy might want to research SMP etc without her employer finding out about it.

There are many scenarios (not just relating to pregnant females) where one might want to speak to a payroll dept without the knowledge one's manager.