FOI denied GDPR

Question

IAfter an unsuccessful request to Council, I submitted a FOI. My request was for the Job Descriptions and Terms and Conditions of Employment for the Staff.
The Terms and Condtions were refused due to GDPR and the JDs are now a couple of weeks out of time.

Looking at the Town Councils Publication Scheme dated March 18 it is loosely based on the ICO template with parts of the Policies and procedures about the employment of staff missing.

My questions are;
Is the ICO template a rough guide or mandatory.

What can be in the Terms and Conditions that would trigger GDPR?

Answer 1

The ICO template doesn't include the requirement to publish terms and conditions of employment or job descriptions as can be evidences here: https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1266/parish_council_information_guide.doc

The publication of such a document is mandatory but it obviously can be adapted to suit the council in question.

It is not reasonable at all to expect to receive details of the terms and conditions of employment as they are the large part of the contract of employment between the staff member and the council and of no business to anyone else, as is the case in every other employment sector.

There is also no requirement to publish the job description for staff either according to the above document and I would suggest that also falls under the protection of employment law and is an element of the terms and conditions of employment.

Comments

Thank you that is very helpful

Answer 2

In answer to the second part of your question, GDPR only gives you a right to access the personal information that the Council holds about you.

Rather than saying that GDPR has been triggered to block your access to the terms and conditions, I suspect the Council is saying that your rights under GDPR (or strictly speaking the Data Protection Act 2018) don't extend to the terms and conditions because any personal information they do contain doesn't relate to you.

Answer 3

If the job description which presumably includes terms and conditions contains personal data identifiable to an individual ( e.g. The Clerk' salary), GDPR applies, and the Clerk would have to consent to it being declared unredacted  in an FOI.  If two or more staff do exactly the same job, then their JD and terms and conditions are not personal data and is not exempt from being made available by virtue of the GDPR.

Answer 4

Section 40(5) of the FOI act relates to – Personal information.   Any refusal to supply the information would have to be initially derived from it.   GDPR could be referenced by virtue of it stating how personal data is defined.