breach of confidentiality or not?

[ellieh34]

Hi, thanks for reading post - look forward, I hope, to your comments!

 

If you were out and about locally where you lived, bumped into a couple of ex colleagues who you had worked with for several years - if they then proceeded - unprompted by yourself - to tell you that, they had recently had an allegation made against them at work, had been investigated, had to attend a susequent disciplinary hearing, the outcome also revealed - which was no case to answer - and also named the person who had made the allegation against them (who you used to work with also and knew well at that time) - would this be considered to be a breach of confidentiality? I know, that you are always told after such events, having just had my own recent DH, that you are told, that the information is confidential and must not be discussed - yet my Union rep says that it is not a breach, as this happened to them - is their own personal information, and if they want to discuss it they can - confusing!!!! i would welcome your comments! thanks in advance as always x

[ellieh34]

25 views and no replies - i know you can help, please do, need to know before next week if this is possible? thank you again in advance

[MARTIN3030]

25 views but 23 were from guests who cannot post unregistered.

You posted at 2.42 in the morning too so need to be a little patient.

I'm sure you will get some replies on Sunday when the site is more active.

[gordies]

Hi, thanks for reading post - look forward, I hope, to your comments!

 

If you were out and about locally where you lived, bumped into a couple of ex colleagues who you had worked with for several years - if they then proceeded - unprompted by yourself - to tell you that, they had recently had an allegation made against them at work, had been investigated, had to attend a susequent disciplinary hearing, the outcome also revealed - which was no case to answer - and also named the person who had made the allegation against them (who you used to work with also and knew well at that time) - would this be considered to be a breach of confidentiality? I know, that you are always told after such events, having just had my own recent DH, that you are told, that the information is confidential and must not be discussed - yet my Union rep says that it is not a breach, as this happened to them - is their own personal information, and if they want to discuss it they can - confusing!!!! i would welcome your comments! thanks in advance as always x

 

 

No breach of anything whatsoever. You met 2 ex colleagues who simply told you about their day at work.

[Emmzzi]

If what they said was all true and therefore not slander/libel (I always forget which is which), there is no legal issue here.

[BankFodder]

25 views and no replies - i know you can help, please do, need to know before next week if this is possible? thank you again in advance

 

I think that this is pushing it a bit.

Only half and hour since your question and in the middle of the night - on a complicated and rarified area of law???

 

I think that you need to get real.

 

 

Anyway, before you can discuss whether there has been a breach of confidentiality, you need to understand whether there is a duty.

 

A duty of confidentiality can come into existence in a number of ways.

 

Mainly -

There can be a contractual duty

Or the confidential information may have been communicated in confidential circumstances and have the quality of confidence about it.

 

In an employment situation then confidentiality is most likely to arise contractually - either explicitly in the contract or implied as part of the circumstances of the employment.

 

Whichever is the case in a disciplinary proceeding, I would say that it is entirely possible - even likely - that a duty of confidentiality has arisen and that the employees have a duty to keep facts of the proceedings to themselves.

 

Your union contact is wrong to say that it is their information and so they can do what they want with it. But then your union contact is not a lawyer - and even most lawyers will not know the rules about confidentiality.

 

I'm not clear if you are asking whether their disclosure to you is a breach - or if the disclosure to them of the original source of the information is a breach.

 

I would say that their disclosure to you is very likely a breach. The disclosure by your employers to them of the source of evidence against them might have been a breach - but I think that it would be protected from being a breach by natural justice which requires that in most cases, accused persons are entitled to know the source of accusations against them.

 

Sorry you had to wait for this - I hope that I don't have to wait as long as half an hour for a - thank you.

[ellieh34]

hi all, - there seems to have been, amazingly, much, horror, comments - mostly sarcastic, all due to the timing of my post, and then half an hour later, asking, in inocennce, about receiving 25 viewings but no replies - I only asked for help - which is of course what this site is all about.

 

 

The time of the post is irrelevant - some of us work rubbish hours, so that is my 10am - lucky you if it isnt yours! no need to punish me with sarcastic comments though! Particularly awful, unbelievably from bankfodder, from the site itself, telling me to "get real" - following comments from his colleague - presumably? already, Martin3030, who nicely explained that I needed to leave more time for people to read and answer my post.

 

Amazing, that two people working on same site, same time of day, or in this case, like myself, morning, can be so different in attitude, bankfodder, being not so pleasant - i thought the site was supposed to be supportive - you should have recognised I was stressed and in a difficult work situation, time message posted, is irrelevant - this is what you should be there for, not making sarcastic, dry comments, humiliating people who are utilising your site to gain assistance.

 

I will not again thanks to you, i think you are a disgrace and should not be allowed to be on the site, given your attitude. you should keep it to yourself, like those of us in the professional sector have to do, regardless of our opinions, regardless of our views, and simply do our job - you were quite simply vile and malicious without reason and are a disgrace to this site as an ambassador of them. i wont use this site again because of you.

Edited July 3, 2012 by citizenB
spacing for easier reading

[becky2585]

Seriously...

Edited July 3, 2012 by becky2585

[renegadeimp]

You might not use the site, but thousands of others will and indeed do.

 

Good luck wherever you feel you need to go to get help on your issue.