Quizzes & Puzzles1 min ago
passport details
7 Answers
Evening all.
I work offshore and need my passport to fly to work ,uk sector, there have been instances where some guys have forgotton their passports and have been unable to fly until they have been home and gotten it. this results in loss of earnings and disruption to flight schedules and crew changes. now our boss wants photo copies or scans of all our passports so if we forget or lose one we can still fly. these copies will be stored on his computer, can i refuse to let him have my photo copy or scan under the premise that someone apart from my boss may be able to access my details and use them for identity theft or fraud
he often leaves his computer logged on whilst he is out of the office.
cheers
I work offshore and need my passport to fly to work ,uk sector, there have been instances where some guys have forgotton their passports and have been unable to fly until they have been home and gotten it. this results in loss of earnings and disruption to flight schedules and crew changes. now our boss wants photo copies or scans of all our passports so if we forget or lose one we can still fly. these copies will be stored on his computer, can i refuse to let him have my photo copy or scan under the premise that someone apart from my boss may be able to access my details and use them for identity theft or fraud
he often leaves his computer logged on whilst he is out of the office.
cheers
Answers
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Since all UK employers are obliged, by law, to ensure that their employees have the right to work in the UK (and to retain photocopies of the documents presented as evidence of that right) the vast majority of employed people will have photocopies of their passports held by their employers. It's standard practice.
Simply insist that the scans are held on a password-protected area of his computer and you'll have nothing to worry about.
From a legal viewpoint it's hard to see why your employer should not have the same right to hold information which all other employers are required to hold by law anyway.
Chris
Simply insist that the scans are held on a password-protected area of his computer and you'll have nothing to worry about.
From a legal viewpoint it's hard to see why your employer should not have the same right to hold information which all other employers are required to hold by law anyway.
Chris
Your right Buenchico it is just for helicoptor flights . Also our employer Aberdeen based has all our details passport numbers ect, But the guy who wants copies is just a supervisor on the rig itself cos any disruption due to guys not being able to get to the rig makes his job a little bit harder as he has to try to juggle the workscopes to suit the manpower he has offshore. My issue is he is an employee just the same as the rest of us so why should i give him my detais.
Cheers
Cheers
Hmmm
Employers (and the staff who are working on their behalf) have the right to make 'reasonable' demands upon their employees to facilitate the smooth operation of their business. It would take a court decision to decide exactly what is, or isn't, 'reasonable' in your case but (given that your employer already has your passport details anyway) it would seem that the issue relates more to the way that those details are stored than to the actual possession of them.
The Data Protection Act requires your employer to store your personal information securely. If, for example, a photocopy of your passport was held in a secure safe (to which only authorised people had access) it would probably comply with the requirements of the DPA. Similarly it would probably be legally OK if the information was stored on a computer in a password-protected form (but the company's nominated Data Controller should know about it).
Perhaps a practical solution would be to provide the company with a photocopy of your passport but placed inside a securely sealed envelope which could be kept in a locked safe or drawer and then only opened in your presence if the need arose?
To be fair to your employer, the company does seem to be trying to find a way around the alternative of taking disciplinary action against anyone who turned up without their passport. (It would almost certainly be deemed a valid reason for dismissing an employee if he failed to turn up without his passport more than a couple of times over, say, a rolling three year period).
Chris
PS: I've assumed that Scottish law is the same as English law as far as your problem is concerned. That's likely to be the case but I'm no expert!
Employers (and the staff who are working on their behalf) have the right to make 'reasonable' demands upon their employees to facilitate the smooth operation of their business. It would take a court decision to decide exactly what is, or isn't, 'reasonable' in your case but (given that your employer already has your passport details anyway) it would seem that the issue relates more to the way that those details are stored than to the actual possession of them.
The Data Protection Act requires your employer to store your personal information securely. If, for example, a photocopy of your passport was held in a secure safe (to which only authorised people had access) it would probably comply with the requirements of the DPA. Similarly it would probably be legally OK if the information was stored on a computer in a password-protected form (but the company's nominated Data Controller should know about it).
Perhaps a practical solution would be to provide the company with a photocopy of your passport but placed inside a securely sealed envelope which could be kept in a locked safe or drawer and then only opened in your presence if the need arose?
To be fair to your employer, the company does seem to be trying to find a way around the alternative of taking disciplinary action against anyone who turned up without their passport. (It would almost certainly be deemed a valid reason for dismissing an employee if he failed to turn up without his passport more than a couple of times over, say, a rolling three year period).
Chris
PS: I've assumed that Scottish law is the same as English law as far as your problem is concerned. That's likely to be the case but I'm no expert!
Thank you Buenchico it seems like sense to me. apart from if i was there to oversee the opening of a sealed envelope i must have had my passport to get to the rig in the first place lol. never mind we will all just have to hope he doesnt leave his computer open for all and sundry to peruse. He talked about the issue again this morning and his words were i will keep a copy of your passports on my desk top so i can access them when i need to. that doesnt inspire much confidence Desk tops are not very secure are they
Cheers anyway for all your input.
Cheers anyway for all your input.
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