| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? 19:52 - Jul 29 with 3593 views | wkj |
When one is job seeking, it is fair to assume most in the situation are under pressure or stress. It is a brutal pursuit with very little in the way of feedback. So when hiring parties make errors - you can appreciate my position is not one of emotional stability
Quick Summary:
I applied for a Job, something I feel qualified for, not the best of Salaries but something that I would be looking at some disposable income with. The hiring party (Public Sector) started using my application information in their test environment - which is fine, companies do this all the time.
However, the emails that it generates left the test environment, and ended up in my inbox. Said emails included a job offer. I was a bit confused as the job offer was different than what I had applied for, so I could see a mistake.
So, I called them - highlighted the mistake, and soon discovered the job offer itself was the mistake, not the information contained within. Their HR department issued a very low-key apology and explained the situation.
In Summary:
I was offered a job, then it was rescinded as it was a mistake. I can hardly complain about it as I am still 'under consideration for the job, however - you can bet your bottom dollar if I don't get the job, I will be wanting to make some waves around it, given how cruel jobseeking can be. The issue is, I am going to have to complain about a public sector agency, and I have entirely no clue what my rights are - if any. |  |
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| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 19:56 - Jul 29 with 2885 views | WD19 |
Its all slightly academic. They could employ you and let you go the same day with zero rights.....and no contracts have been exchanged....so making waves is unlikely to achieve much. Maybe a sincere apology from a senior bod if you are lucky. |  | | |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 19:57 - Jul 29 with 2875 views | Illinoisblue |
You have the right to be annoyed and frustrated but beyond an apology I’m not sure there’s much else to be had here. |  |
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| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 19:58 - Jul 29 with 2866 views | factual_blue |
Maybe it's an initiative test?
Trouble is, complaining might be the wrong response. And so might not complaining. |  |
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| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 19:58 - Jul 29 with 2864 views | EddyJ |
Sounds like a breach of GDPR, or whatever stands for GDPR post-Brexit.
The big issue here is them even using your information (name, email) in a test environment in the first place.
Information on how to complain here: https://www.gov.uk/data-protection/make-a-complaint |  | | |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:00 - Jul 29 with 2847 views | Herbivore |
Sadly I don't think you have any rights in that situation, mate. I was dismayed to learn recently just how few rights you have as an employee if you've been with you employer for under 2 years. |  |
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| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:06 - Jul 29 with 2785 views | wkj |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 19:58 - Jul 29 by factual_blue |
Maybe it's an initiative test?
Trouble is, complaining might be the wrong response. And so might not complaining. |
I don't know if I have the tenacity to complain to St Edmundsbury council about this - I don't think it usually goes that well. | |
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| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:07 - Jul 29 with 2773 views | WeWereZombies |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 19:58 - Jul 29 by EddyJ |
Sounds like a breach of GDPR, or whatever stands for GDPR post-Brexit.
The big issue here is them even using your information (name, email) in a test environment in the first place.
Information on how to complain here: https://www.gov.uk/data-protection/make-a-complaint |
Maybe the twigging that the apparent job offer was not right was the first part of the initiative test and this finding out what data protection there should be is the second part. The final part will be to decide what response wkj should make to the 'false' offer and breach of security. I would not suggest a direct complaint but, if in conversation on the subject, an enquiry along the lines of 'this wasn't best practice, what are you going to do to make sure it does not happen again?' Might be the type of management initiative they are looking for. |  |
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| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:08 - Jul 29 with 2774 views | wkj |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:06 - Jul 29 by wkj |
I don't know if I have the tenacity to complain to St Edmundsbury council about this - I don't think it usually goes that well. |
No kidding, I am quite stunned about how it all played out. We shall see - even if I do get the job, it doesn't bode well for my working environment seeing how HR/Recruitment is so far. | |
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| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:11 - Jul 29 with 2752 views | wkj |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 19:58 - Jul 29 by EddyJ |
Sounds like a breach of GDPR, or whatever stands for GDPR post-Brexit.
The big issue here is them even using your information (name, email) in a test environment in the first place.
Information on how to complain here: https://www.gov.uk/data-protection/make-a-complaint |
I will consider it, in some way - I think they can circumvent the GDPR issue as my information was sent to me, though I will ask the question as to if this information was sent only to me, or elsewhere | |
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| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:20 - Jul 29 with 2670 views | DanTheMan |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:11 - Jul 29 by wkj |
I will consider it, in some way - I think they can circumvent the GDPR issue as my information was sent to me, though I will ask the question as to if this information was sent only to me, or elsewhere |
They still shouldn't be using it in a test environment as the original reason for collecting your data (as part of a job offer) was not for testing purposes.
So it was a GDPR breach. |  |
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| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:23 - Jul 29 with 2649 views | wkj |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:20 - Jul 29 by DanTheMan |
They still shouldn't be using it in a test environment as the original reason for collecting your data (as part of a job offer) was not for testing purposes.
So it was a GDPR breach. |
I will head down this road once a decision is made then. I do know when I was doing training at a well-known insurance company in Ipswich, they processed data from their live database in the training environment to, so I assumed this was acceptable standards. | |
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| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:31 - Jul 29 with 2595 views | DanTheMan |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:23 - Jul 29 by wkj |
I will head down this road once a decision is made then. I do know when I was doing training at a well-known insurance company in Ipswich, they processed data from their live database in the training environment to, so I assumed this was acceptable standards. |
Unless that data was anonymised or at least obfuscated, then that also should not have been happening.
It does happen all over the place though. | |
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| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:34 - Jul 29 with 2567 views | wkj |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:31 - Jul 29 by DanTheMan |
Unless that data was anonymised or at least obfuscated, then that also should not have been happening.
It does happen all over the place though. |
I must admit the company I was with has had more than a lifetime worth of Data Protection issues. I do have to laugh when they explained that this was conducted in a "Secure Training Environment"
Well... I do challenge the secure part, the evidence being I accessed it the same as I can the live system, including the email address of the Oracle technician who I presume was working with the system at the time. | |
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| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:36 - Jul 29 with 2561 views | Durovigutum |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:20 - Jul 29 by DanTheMan |
They still shouldn't be using it in a test environment as the original reason for collecting your data (as part of a job offer) was not for testing purposes.
So it was a GDPR breach. |
Very much a GDPR.
Key is what have you consented them to do with your data? If you have ticked a box somewhere that says "use my actual data in a test environment, probably with lower levels of security, with no consideration of basic requirements such as anonymisation, and then allow it out of the test environment into the real world" then you don't have a leg to stand on. I suspect you've just allowed them to use it for "provision of HR services" - therefore.... |  | | |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:36 - Jul 29 with 2560 views | Giant_Midget |
This is a GDPR issue. https://www.sqlshack.com/using-production-data-testing-post-gdpr-world/
A company I worked for asked staff to input fake data to a test customer base. Some of the fake customer data input was a list of footballer names and the address given was the clubs ground. Anyway, somehow letters were issued to a number of these footballers, causing the club to contact the company asking what was up! |  | | |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:39 - Jul 29 with 2538 views | wkj |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:36 - Jul 29 by Durovigutum |
Very much a GDPR.
Key is what have you consented them to do with your data? If you have ticked a box somewhere that says "use my actual data in a test environment, probably with lower levels of security, with no consideration of basic requirements such as anonymisation, and then allow it out of the test environment into the real world" then you don't have a leg to stand on. I suspect you've just allowed them to use it for "provision of HR services" - therefore.... |
Cheers. I will look into this very soon. Even if I get the job, I will explore this more and make a case. Naturally, I don't want to make waves before the job is actually filled. | |
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| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:41 - Jul 29 with 2521 views | borge |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:00 - Jul 29 by Herbivore |
Sadly I don't think you have any rights in that situation, mate. I was dismayed to learn recently just how few rights you have as an employee if you've been with you employer for under 2 years. |
That's totally true ref less than two years' employment Herbivore, but the reverse is true post two years. It is very, very difficult for a scrupulous employer to get rid of an employee after that two year period, with the employee being very well protected. Unfortunately there are too many unscrupulous employers and too few employees who know their rights.
None of that helps ref the OP though... | | | |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:42 - Jul 29 with 2517 views | GeoffSentence |
What are the chances you might want to apply for another job there in the future? If anything more than 'no chance at all' I wouldn't kick up a stink. |  |
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| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:44 - Jul 29 with 2495 views | wkj |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:42 - Jul 29 by GeoffSentence |
What are the chances you might want to apply for another job there in the future? If anything more than 'no chance at all' I wouldn't kick up a stink. |
To be honest, if there is a failing in the system, something the size of Oracle, then I am not too concerned. This is a public sector business after all. Do their security issues have wider-reaching problems? I feel it would be unethical of me not to make a stink about it. | |
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| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:47 - Jul 29 with 2479 views | Eireannach_gorm |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:00 - Jul 29 by Herbivore |
Sadly I don't think you have any rights in that situation, mate. I was dismayed to learn recently just how few rights you have as an employee if you've been with you employer for under 2 years. |
Its OK, the EU regulations will .......... oh sorry about that! |  | | |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 21:03 - Jul 29 with 2384 views | EddyJ |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:36 - Jul 29 by Giant_Midget |
This is a GDPR issue. https://www.sqlshack.com/using-production-data-testing-post-gdpr-world/
A company I worked for asked staff to input fake data to a test customer base. Some of the fake customer data input was a list of footballer names and the address given was the clubs ground. Anyway, somehow letters were issued to a number of these footballers, causing the club to contact the company asking what was up! |
A company I worked for had someone enter test data as follows:
Name: XXXXXXX
Phone Number: XXXXXX
Email: XXX.com
When a tester clicked on the email link they got a surprise. | | | |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 21:04 - Jul 29 with 2379 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:36 - Jul 29 by Durovigutum |
Very much a GDPR.
Key is what have you consented them to do with your data? If you have ticked a box somewhere that says "use my actual data in a test environment, probably with lower levels of security, with no consideration of basic requirements such as anonymisation, and then allow it out of the test environment into the real world" then you don't have a leg to stand on. I suspect you've just allowed them to use it for "provision of HR services" - therefore.... |
I would imagine there would still be a case even with such a box being ticked as there is an argument that it was an unreasonable expectation and the small print is rarely truly read!
Can be pretty sure that such a box did not exist I would imagine. |  |
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| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 21:08 - Jul 29 with 2348 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 20:41 - Jul 29 by borge |
That's totally true ref less than two years' employment Herbivore, but the reverse is true post two years. It is very, very difficult for a scrupulous employer to get rid of an employee after that two year period, with the employee being very well protected. Unfortunately there are too many unscrupulous employers and too few employees who know their rights.
None of that helps ref the OP though... |
The question would be why a company would want to get rid of an employee after 2 years. If they are in breach of the terms of their employment, they become unable to fulfil the role required or the position becomes redundant there are perfectly adequate means for dismissing an employee.
Just as employees often don't know their rights (a union is always helpful for sound advice there), there are plenty of employers who don't know or follow the law as well. | |
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| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 21:17 - Jul 29 with 2300 views | Deano69 |
You probably need to ask yourself what you are trying to achieve from complaining/highlighting the error. What is your preferred outcome?
Other than name and email address was there any other personal data included in the email? [Post edited 29 Jul 2021 22:10]
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| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 21:30 - Jul 29 with 2229 views | borge |
| Job seeking: Offered a job in error. What are my rights? on 21:08 - Jul 29 by Nthsuffolkblue |
The question would be why a company would want to get rid of an employee after 2 years. If they are in breach of the terms of their employment, they become unable to fulfil the role required or the position becomes redundant there are perfectly adequate means for dismissing an employee.
Just as employees often don't know their rights (a union is always helpful for sound advice there), there are plenty of employers who don't know or follow the law as well. |
People change, performance dips, attitudes change. People may be perfectly capable initially and then become less so after time, or they can't evolve or grow in line with the company.
I agree, if there is a capabilities issue or the role becomes redundant then an employer can ultimately dispense with the employee, but rarely is it that straightforward or simple and it certainly isn't a quick process when it comes to capabilities or performance. It's especially not that easy or straightforward for a small company with limited resources.
An employee can hand in their notice at any point and in reality leave without even serving that notice period, whereas an employer (unless willing to take the risk of legal action) has to go through a much more complex and lengthy process to end the relationship. | | | |
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