My work confiscated my personal flashdrive when they made me redundant

[euanl63]

Hi there. New to the forum.

 

I wonder if anyone could advise me as to my rights. I was made redundant on Monday. When I was told of this I was told to stay in the room upstairs in my work and clear my desk out at the end of the day. The redundancy was immediate and I was not to work my notice although I will be paid. That was fair enough since I had full admin privileges to the computers and servers. When I went down to clear my desk the removable hard drive (belonging to the work) and my own personal flashdrive had been removed from my laptop.

 

I was told they would hold onto my flashdrive until they had ensured that it contained no work related stuff, it would then be returned to me. They have still not returned it 4 days on. I have tried several times to phone to ask for it's return and was told that my boss would phone me back. I have received no such phone call.

 

The situation is made more serious by the fact that the flashdrive contains things that should not be in the public domain.

 

I need to know:

 

1 - Did they have any right to confiscate this in the first place, and

2 - Do I have the right to demand it back without further delay

 

Watch this space I will probably have more on the subject of the redundancy as I am the only one who is to be made redundant.

[citizenB]

I will try and find someone who might know, for you.

[Emmzzi]

Why would you have a personal flash drive at work?? Also this sounds like dismissal not redundancy?

 

What was on the flash drive that concerns you?

 

There are processes that should be followed but I need more info on drive contents and reason for dismissal.

[euanl63]

Why would you have a personal flash drive at work?? Also this sounds like dismissal not redundancy?

 

I was working on something in my tea break.

 

I agree with you, it does sound like dismissal although they had no grounds to dismiss me whatsoever. In short I was with a company who broke away from a larger company. We did not take our IT department or HR department with us. The IT reps for the 3 sites were myself and my opposite number down South. They came up with the fantastic plan to create a new IT Manager role to cover all 3 sites and make the other person redundant. I was of course invited to apply for the job, but it was very heavily weighted in favour of the other guy.

 

Frankly I smelled a rat from the get go, but they really had no reason to want rid of me. I am an extremely hard worker, had an almost perfect attendance record in 8 years of service and was (I thought) a very important member of staff for my site.

[Emmzzi]

Well, if they suspect you were lifting company property they can investigate. If you are on garden leave you are technically still employed? A) is there anything on there that breaches it security policy b) were you nicking any company property inc IPR c) surely to god you had it password protected?

 

I'd worry about what is on it more than their rights to have it. I'd just say "it was on company premises so of course we thought it was company property...."

 

What do you need from it? I'd ask to collect and wipe under supervision.

 

PS unpaid tea break on your own equipment? Or that's looking dodgy too...

[euanl63]

The only company stuff on it was old stuff I had for working from home, it was clearly marked as 'work stuff' and it doesn't take 4 days to work that out. No I didn't 'nick' anything, what would be the point. As the IT rep for the site I would not have anything on there that breached security. The sensitive stuff is password protected but it's not the point I am really uncomfortable not having it in my possession

[Emmzzi]

OK. And were you working on it on company kit, and company time?

[euanl63]

OK. And were you working on it on company kit, and company time?

 

On company kit in my own time. Not sure what you're driving at, the fact is it is my flashdrive, they had no reason to doubt my integrity I was a loyal servant to the company for 8 years. Regardless, it doesn't take 4 days to check for work related files.

[Emmzzi]

Well, it is a priority for you. Not so for them.

 

Arguably work on company time (if tea breaks paid) on company premises and company kit belongs to the company, is what I am driving at. Did you have permission to do your own work on the premises? In writing?

 

And what valid business reason do you have for having a personal flash drive at work?

 

You seem most reluctant to state what that work was. My main point is "giant can of worms. For the love of god don't give them a reason to dig further than you want them to." You will be aware how weak password protection can be.

 

 

Polite call asking when is convenient to retrieve and do they want to go over contents and delete together.

[andydd]

Sometimes people are asked to leave immediately, especially in IT as they have access to sensitive stuff, I know..Ive been in same situation.

 

BUT there may well be T&C's about connected personal USB's and Hard Drives to company computers, many do disallow it and it can be misconduct if you do.

 

Still after 8 years you will have some redundancy.

 

As suggested above, a polite phone call would prob be best. They may well have the right to check it, depends on the T&C's, many are pretty comprehensive these days, especially in IT.

 

Andy

[san_d]

1 - Did they have any right to confiscate this in the first place, and

Yes, provided it was in your workplace (not in the locker room for example) and connected to company property (corporate laptop)

2 - Do I have the right to demand it back without further delay

Yes, because it takes at worst 30 mins to clone it with any software.

 

You also have the right that they shouldn't use any personal data from your drive which has nothing to do with work.

 

In my view it's a very bad idea to plug your own drive with own data to company IT hardware. Never mind if your intention was to steal confidential data, but what if they get hold of your CV, applications, letters to your mistress, etc.

[ericsbrother]

and viruses.