Rejects rights red-tape headache for employers

Employers
will have to respond to requests from unsuccessful job applicants on why they
were rejected following the publication of the Information Commission’s code on
selection and recruitment.

This
is the view of employment lawyer Anne Coles from Fox Williams, who claims that
if employers don’t respond to these requests the applicant can ask the
Information Commission to carry out an assessment of the employers’ information
handling.

Applicants
will also be able to apply to court to have inaccurate information corrected
and for compensation where damage or distress has been caused.

Coles
thinks the code, that advises employers on their responsibilities concerning
the handling of personal data during the recruitment process, goes further than
the Data Protection Act 1998 requires.

“From
the day the decision to recruit is made until six months after the final
selection employers will have to deal with requests from disappointed
applicants wanting to find out the real reason they were rejected," said
Coles.

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David
Clancy, strategic policy officer for the Information Commission, confirmed that
job applicants have a right to see any information recorded about them by an
employer.

By Ben Willmott