Data Protection (Complaints)

[I T S]

Anyone know their law in data protection regarding railways?

If you submit a complaint to a TOC about a member of staff, are the TOC allowed to tell the staff member who complained? Taking into consideration the member of staff was guilty of the offence committed while on a train.

Would the member of staff be entitled to go to a third party to take further action for a member of the public complaining about a valid issue?

 

[Greenback]

I'd imagine that the passing on of personal information would be covered by the Data Protection Act 1998. I am not aware of any specific legislation in regard to railways. The definition of personal information within the Act includes your name, address and telephone number, among many other things.

Has the TOC passed any of this sort of information on the member of staff? Have they told you they have done this?

There are circumstances where the member of staff may have taken details of a customers name and address in the course of their duties.In these cases the staff memebr may remember the name, without the TOC being involved at all with passing the information on.

As someone who dealt with complaints for many years, when producing complaint summaries and reports I always anonymised the complainants. I don;t really see what an organisation can gain by passin gon the info to their staff, though I cna see a situation where details are passed to a line manager, who is then asked by the staff member concerned. 'Oh that's Mr/Mrs so and so isn't it?' before unthinkingly confirming that it was.

 

[SS4]

I believe Data Protection entitles the staff member to be told but not that you told them.

In other words it would be more like "somehow said this about you, what is the case?"

 

[Greenback]

I believe Data Protection entitles the staff member to be told but not that you told them.

In other words it would be more like "somehow said this about you, what is the case?"

Yes, that is correct. Normally, in my old role, it would be a case of informing the member of staff that a complaint had been made, but only in general terms, such as a member of the public, a customer, or something similar. No names would be given, but it was not uncommon for a staff member to be expecting a complaint, following an incident of some description, so as I say, it's quite possible they might know who it was without any names or othe rpersonal details being passed on.

Alternatively, in some cases, it may be fairly obvious from the circumstances of the complaint, which the staff member must be told in order to give their side of things, who the complainant is. This is why I am keen to know what has actually been passed on by the TOC, and in what way.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

I doubt your name would be allowed to be passed on, but if you publicly made a complaint about someone then they would be entitled to take civil action against you if it were untrue.


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[Greenback]

I doubt your name would be allowed to be passed on, but if you publicly made a complaint about someone then they would be entitled to take civil action against you if it were untrue.


Sent from my iPhone 4 using Tapatalk

That is also true if unlikely. I have personally been accused of all sorts of things (it came with the job) but it would have to be really serious for me to go through the hassle of taking any action! Ina ny case, those who make such allegations can be living in an alternate universe!

 

[ralphchadkirk]

That is also true if unlikely. I have personally been accused of all sorts of things (it came with the job) but it would have to be really serious for me to go through the hassle of taking any action! Ina ny case, those who make such allegations can be living in an alternate universe!

It wouldn't really be worth it unless you had been accused of murder or something!


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[DaveNewcastle]

Anyone know their law in data protection regarding railways?

I agree that there is no provision in the Act which differentiates the Railways from any other user of data.

If you submit a complaint to a TOC about a member of staff, are the TOC allowed to tell the staff member who complained? Taking into consideration the member of staff was Guilty of the Offence committed while on a train.

It is hard to see how the member of staff could be Guilty of an Offence without that Guilt being established by a Court, and to see how that Court could have established Guilt without having first heard Evidence from Witnesses, and how those Witness Statements or oral Evidence could have been presented without the identity of the Witnesses being demanded by the Court. If they have been found Guilty then the identities of the Witnesses will certainly have been established (some protection can be provided if Witnesses are believed to be at risk).

But perhaps you didn't actually mean "the member of staff was guilty of the offence" and this is just your belief, in which case you are asking if the Act restricts the employer from divulging the name of the Complainant while investigating the Complaint? (whether the Complaint is upheld or not).
It would be a perilous investigative policy which divulged the name of a Complainant, as it must meet the test that personal data shall be used "for specified purposes and not in a way that is incompatible with those purposes", and Section 10 requires the prevention the processing of personal data that is likely to cause damage or personal distress to the person whose data is processed. But note that the Act only applies to Data, its processing, storeage etc., it does not apply to information in human memory and so there would be possible disclosures of a purely oral nature which would not be captured by the Act.

Would the member of staff be entitled to go to a third party to take further action for a member of the public complaining about a valid issue?

"Go to a third party?" Yes. The Data Protection Act concerns the Data, so would only regulate the exchange of personal data, between parties, as above. An anonymous tale could be told to, for example, a journalist who may then be able to investigate and establish the identites and then to obtain confirmation during interviews (do we see much evidence of thorough investigative journalism for the sort of story you have in mind?).

All Companies with data records should have a Policy to regulate the handling of personal data and these may extend a little further than the strict requirements of the Act. I would expect that Policies would generally include prohibition of the disclosure of personal information that is not necessary for the functions of the Company.

 

[rf_ioliver]

Anyone know their law in data protection regarding railways?

If you submit a complaint to a TOC about a member of staff, are the TOC allowed to tell the staff member who complained? Taking into consideration the member of staff was guilty of the offence committed while on a train.

Would the member of staff be entitled to go to a third party to take further action for a member of the public complaining about a valid issue?

This particular doesn't really come under the Data Protection Act per se.

The member of staff would be allowed to request all data being held about him/her under the DPA, but identification of 3rd parties (ie: complainers' identities) can and will be removed, unless all parties involved agree. The DPA has many exception clauses like this.

Whether the TOC tells the member of staff who made a complaint is probably between the TOC and its staff. Given possible legal issues I strongly doubt that the originator of a complaint would be identified.

t.

Ian

ps: IANAL, but happen to work in this area and my understanding is of the EU-wide DPAs rather than the UK specifically.

 

[Greenback]

This particular doesn't really come under the Data Protection Act per se.

The member of staff would be allowed to request all data being held about him/her under the DPA, but identification of 3rd parties (ie: complainers' identities) can and will be removed, unless all parties involved agree. The DPA has many exception clauses like this.

Whether the TOC tells the member of staff who made a complaint is probably between the TOC and its staff. Given possible legal issues I strongly doubt that the originator of a complaint would be identified.

t.

Ian

ps: IANAL, but happen to work in this area and my understanding is of the EU-wide DPAs rather than the UK specifically.

I agree with most of that. I don't agree that it doesn't come under the DPA.

 

[I T S]

I can now confirm, that this person has been cautioned by police for harassment simply for boarding someone's train and reporting them 2 or 3 times for breaking rules within the company. The staff found out who reported them and went to the police to report this. Is this really harrassing someone?

 

[IanXC]

Anyone know their law in data protection regarding railways?

If you submit a complaint to a TOC about a member of staff, are the TOC allowed to tell the staff member who complained? Taking into consideration the member of staff was guilty of the offence committed while on a train.

Would the member of staff be entitled to go to a third party to take further action for a member of the public complaining about a valid issue?

I would have thought that if the complaint is something such as bad service or rudeness then the staff member would be told who had made the complaint.

Should the matter relate to a Civil/Criminal/(maybe?)By-law offence then I would expect the proper process to be followed for that before any consideration is given to the complaint.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

I can now confirm, that this person has been cautioned by police for harassment simply for boarding someone's train and reporting them 2 or 3 times for breaking rules within the company. The staff found out who reported them and went to the police to report this. Is this really harrassing someone?

Your question is not clear.
Referrring to 'this person', 'someone', 'them', 'the staff' and again 'somone' is just too many unidentified people to unravel. If you could clarify the distinct parties it might make your question clearer and easier to answer.

Are it would be helpful to know if we still examining the impact of the DPA (as your original post asked)? 'Harrassment' is not a DPA matter (as I'm sure you know).

 

[I T S]

Hi Dave,

The person who has been pulled by police is a rail enthusiast
The person who made the complained to police is a Train Conductor
The Company have recieved complaints from this enthusiast regarding this conductor's behaviour. It is suspected that the TOC have gave out the details of the enthusiast which has led the conductor to make a complaint to police about this alleged harrassment.

ITS

 

[district]

If the enthusiast made the complaints maliciously and where there was no actual need to complain, and the enthuisast kept complaining about that member of staff over and over again, again with no basis, or if the enthusiast made the complaints because of a personal hatred of the conductor, then yeah I'd say that is harrassment.

Enthusiasts like that give us all a bad name.

 

[Greenback]

I don't think anyone can comment on this situation. While anyone has the right to complain about poor service, rudeness, or any other bad experience they have had, members of staff also have the right to be protected from malicious or vexatious complaints.

We do not know the circumstances of the complaints, or the police involvement. From a Data Protection Act point of view, there is no evidence at the moment that there has been any breach.

 

[ChathillMan]

I think it is important to note that this works both ways, in my field of customer service we are aloud to tell the complainant that a member of staff has been interviewd and the appropriate action taken to stop it happening again, under no circumstances can a customer be told the staff members name (unless the customer already knows) and the precise course of action taken as this would be in effect passing on the staff members information to the public

 

[185]

I think there are two sides to the coin here - if there is an allegation by a passenger which is considered to be possibly wrong or even malicious, the member of staff should have just as much right to see the name and address of the person making those allegations, in order to either bring a private prosecution or to make a police complaint.

One certain train company lost on this not so long ago, when a member of staff reported an assault, the company sat on it's hands, tried to back the passenger up and refused to offer up the details. Needless to say, the police were in the revenue protection managers office by the following morning - resulted in a jail sentence for the passenger.