I have just found out via a work colleague that I am to be disciplined for something at work.

It appears my line manager informed employee A of this, including the nature of what I am to be disciplined for.

Employee A told employee B in a phone conversation.

Employee B then informed me of this also during a telephone conversation.

I have not been notified of this in anyway by my line manger and the first I heard of it was from my colleague.

Speaking to ACAS they say that yes this is bad practice but what I want to know is ..

.. is this a breach of my confidentiality?

Any help or advice appreciated

Thank you

Yes, it is a breach of the duty of confidentiality. I would say that it is also a breach by your line manager of his/her duties under their employment contract.

In terms of bringing an action for breach of confidentiality, you will be very hard pressed. Apart from anything else, I'm not sure that you can demonstrate any loss although there might be a humiliation factor but it probably wouldn't be worth very much. Much more useful to have some ammunition in respect of your employer if eventually you need it – although it probably won't help you against your employer directly (in that they are unlikely to cut you any slack if they find that you are guilty of some wrongdoing) but on the other hand, you could use it to negotiate a slightly better settlement in the event that you lost your job or you had to bring a dismissal action before an industrial tribunal.

The best thing you can do for the moment is to make a detailed note of everything that has happened. Time and date it and then store it away somewhere safe and see if you need it.

Certainly very foolish behaviour by your line manager. Certainly very foolish behaviour by employee A.

See above for best answer to Yes/No

In respect of what it will do for you, your employer can easily (because it's true) state these are two wholly separate incidents and continue with the disciplinary and also take action for the breach of confidence separately (or fob you off and continue taking action)

If your lucky (assuming the employer has a case against you) you can sometimes use it as a way of damage control in defending your case

All depends on what it is, what you have done (or not done) and the ability of your employer in managing this fairly and reasonably in the eyes of employment law

The advice i'd give you right now is pocket this for a while and think about what reason they have to take action and how you will defend that issue, be positive (sorry it's Friday and my Friday rule is be + not -), at least you have a heads up!

Did your employer really inform employee A you were to be disciplined, or did they interview employee A to gather evidence and employee A inferred?