Monday, 11 May 2009

York journalists demand to Newsquest: 'Show us what you think of us.'

Journalists employed by Newsquest in York have used the Data Protection Act to demand to see how well their employer thinks they are performing.
Newsquest (York), publisher of The Press and Gazette and Herald, carried out assessments of all editorial staff ahead of its recent redundancy process, but refused to tell staff what score they got or who scored them.
Now, members of the NUJ chapel at the newspapers have submitted official requests under Data protection legislation, asking that:
They are shown their full assessment
They are given the names of their assessors
The scores are subsequently destroyed
The union says managing editor Steve Hughes has promised to give staff their scores within 40 days of their request, in line with the Data Protection Act. The union is continuing to fight for their assessors’ names and for the subsequent destruction of the scores.
Joint FoC Tony Kelly and acting Joint FoC Gavin Aitchison said: “The Data Protection Act gives individuals certain rights that cannot be ignored. Newsquest may kowtow to the demands of its American owners but it is subject to British law.”
The NUJ members in York have submitted separate but identical requests for information.
They cite part of the UK Data Protection Act that says an individual is entitled “to have communicated to him [or her] in an intelligible form, the information constituting any personal data of which that individual is the data subject, and any information available to the data controller as to the source of those data.”

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