EL Consultancy Ltd trading as ELC provides our clients with HR and employment law advice and support services.

ELC is committed to ensuring we comply with Data Protection laws (including the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 & the UK Data Protection Act 2018 as supplemented and amended). 

We may hold personal data:

·        About you; if you are a client,

·        Or, your prospective, current and former employees, workers or contractors; if we provide HR or Employment Law Support services to you.

We can be a both a Data Controlller and a Data Processor. Data processing on behalf of clients will be governed by data processing agreements where appropriate.

This privacy notice explains how we hold and use any personal information we collect during your working relationship with us.

The purpose of our processing of personal information

We hold and use any personal information we collect: 

1)     To allow us to perform our contract with you. Primarily this is to enable us to:

·     Provide consultancy advice and support on situations in relation to you personally or in relation to your prospective, current and former employees, workers or contractors on HR and employment law matters,

and/or 

·     Take, defend and progress legal proceedings on your behalf. 

2)     To administer the contract.

3)     To enable us to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

4)     To inform you of our services which may be of interest to you.

5)     In exceptional circumstances to protect the interests of the data subject (or someone else’s interests).

What personal Information do we collect?

Depending on the nature of the consultancy services we are providing to you or your organisation, we may collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information:

·        Personal contact details such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers, and personal email addresses.

·        Date of birth.

·        Gender.

·        Marital status and dependants.

·        Next of kin and emergency contact information.

·        National Insurance number.

·        Payroll records and tax status information.

·        Salary, annual leave, pension and benefits information.

·        Start date.

·        Location of employment or workplace.

·        Identification Documentation (copy passport / driving licence etc)

·        Recruitment information (including copies of right to work documentation, references and other information included in a CV or cover letter or as part of the application process).

·        Employment records (including job titles, work history, working hours, training records and professional memberships).

·        Compensation history.

·        Performance information.

·        Disciplinary and grievance information.

·        CCTV footage and other information obtained through electronic means such as swipecard records and audio recordings.

·        Photographs.

·        Other personal data disclosed in the course of legal proceedings. 

We may also collect, store and use the following "special categories" of more sensitive personal information:

·        Information about race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and political opinions.

·        Trade union membership.

·        Information about health, including any medical condition, health and sickness records.

·        Information about criminal convictions and offences.

How do we collect personal information?

We normally collect this information from you.  However, we may sometimes receive personal information from third parties including HR Consultants, Third party Witnesses, Medical Practitioners, Accountants, Expert Witnesses and your Insurance Company.

Data Security 

We will ensure that appropriate security measures are in place to ensure that personal data can only be accessed by those who need to access it and that it is held and transferred securely.

Data Sharing 

We will share personal information with third parties where required to do so by law, where it is necessary to administer the working relationship with you or where we or you have another legitimate interest in doing so. 

We may have to share personal information with third parties, for example

·        Lawyers

·        Expert Witnesses (Medical Practitioners, Accountants etc) 

·        Private Investigators

·        Insurance Companies

·        The other side in legal proceedings

·        Judicial Bodies

·        The Labour Relations Agency / ACAS/ Workplace Relations Commission

·        Our Company Accountants and bookkeeper

·        Our IT Support Providers

We require third party service providers to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We limit the extent of the information shared to a strict “need to know” basis.

Transfer outside of the EU

We may transfer personal information outside the EU for example, when using cloud based storage solutions providers.  If we do, you can expect the information to be held and used in a way that is consistent with and which respects the EU and UK laws on data protection.

Data Retention

We will only retain personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose we collected it for, for the purpose of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. 

Normally, client files are retained for 7 years from the conclusion of the legal proceedings or the closure of general advice file. 

Data Subject Rights

Under certain circumstances, by law data subjects have the right to:

·        Request access to their personal information

·        Request correction of their personal information.

·        Request erasure of personal information. 

·        Object to processing of their personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about their particular situation which makes them want to object to processing on this ground. 

·        Object to processing of their personal information for direct marketing purposes.

·        Request the restriction of processing of their personal information. 

·        Request the transfer of their personal information to another party. 

·        Right to withdraw consent

These rights are not absolute. Further information on data subject rights can be found at: www.ico.org.uk

Data subjects also have a right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office if they believe we have not handled their personal information in accordance with the Data Protection laws. In the first instance complaints should be made to the firm. 

Failure to provide personal information

If you fail to provide information when requested, which is necessary for us to provide our services we may not able to provide consultancy advice or take, defend and progress legal proceedings on your behalf.

Automated Decision Making

We do not use automated decision making to make decision that will have significant impacts on data subjects.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of personal information.

Contact Details

ELC

Data Protection Manager

177 Saintfield Road

Belfast

BT8 7HP