| Link(s): | ICO consultation on draft employment practices guidance – information about workers’ health | ICO |
Context
Health data can form a key part of the employer-worker relationship, so employers need to know how to process it and to keep it safe. The ICA has drafted guidance on managing health data in an employment setting, including information about sickness records, occupational health schemes, and more. The ICO sees this as part of its ongoing work on its employment code of practice and will contain key guidance and helpful advice covering what firms need to know, as employers, in relation to data protection.
Key points to note
The draft guidance aims to provide practical guidance about handling the health information of workers in accordance with data protection legislation and to promote good practice. The ICO also intends to produce additional practical tools (such as checklists) to go alongside the guidance to help support employment practices.
Before drafting the guidance, the ICO issued a call for views between August and October 2021.This sought input from relevant stakeholders including:
- employers
- professional associations
- those representing the interests of staff
- recruitment agencies
- employment dispute resolution bodies
- workers, volunteers, employees; and
- suppliers of employment technology solutions
The call for views helped to inform the ICO’s work in developing updated employment guidance. You can view a summary document of the responses on the ICO website.
Next actions
The Consultation closes on 26th January 2023. If firms wish to respond, they should do so by that date either via the ICO’s online survey or by downloading the response document and e-mailing it, once completed, to: employmentguidance@ico.org.uk.