APPRENTICESHIPS IN ROYAL MAIL AND THE PROTECTION OF MEMBERS’ INFORMATION

APPRENTICESHIPS IN ROYAL MAIL AND THE PROTECTION OF MEMBERS’ INFORMATION

It has been brought to our attention that Royal Mail management are approaching branch ULRs and / or education providers to obtain information about members who are taking apprenticeships through CWU learning projects. Some managers, despite giving reassurances that they would not share the information more widely throughout the company, have gone on to do precisely that.

As all ULRs will know, learner confidentiality has always, and quite necessarily, been at the heart of what we do. It is essential, not only to maintain the trust of our members but also to stay within data protection laws, that we do not share personal learning information without the explicit consent of the person concerned.

We have been seeking to engage Royal Mail on the issue of apprenticeships and a properly managed exchange of information would obviously need to form a part of this – but an unagreed fishing exercise is not the appropriate way to approach this and we therefore instruct our ULRs and the education providers they work with not to share any personal learner information until the concerns outlined above have been addressed and they receive confirmation of this from the CWU.

Any queries to the content of the above, please contact pdovey@cwu.org

Yours sincerely, 

Ray Ellis – CWU National Officer  

Trish Lavelle – CWU Head Of Education & Training

LtB Royal Mail Apprenticeships