Employer revealed my health information to (former) colleagues and continues to do so

[dc32]

I am in the middle of an ET case and I have a question about my rights regarding disclosure of my information to other people.


One of my complaints in the ET case is that I disclosed a medical condition to my manager and it was immediately shared with several colleagues. There are other complaints but that's the one I'm focused on right now.


I was later dismissed for issues related to this condition, which has been determined to be a disability, but, while building their case for the ET, in order to try to show that my manager and others (coincidentally the colleagues to whom my manager originally disclosed my condition) couldn't have known I had a disability, the employer disclosed my condition to several additional former colleagues, asking them to write statements regarding whether they knew about my condition. It turns out that many of these people are not even going to be witnesses in the ET case. When I pointed out how inappropriate it was for the respondents to disclose information about my medical condition (especially when this is partly what the ET case was about) they responded by saying that they have a right to gather evidence, and they were therefore free to disclose my condition to anyone they wanted as long as it was for the purpose of building their ET case (and implying that they will continue to do so). They also said that my condition will become public during the hearings anyway so I basically have no right to privacy. This doesn't seem right to me.


Do they have the right to share my personal information like this?


Thanks.

[R0b]

Once you bring an ET case then it becomes public knowledge, so if you didn't want that to happen you shouldn't have proceeded. Yes, they do have a right to gather evidence and if they have reasonable belief that certain employees knew about it, then they've every right to make contact to them.

Did you think that by bringing an ET case everything is going to be private between you, the employer and the tribunal?

[WylnTholia]

Once you bring an ET case then it becomes public knowledge, so if you didn't want that to happen you shouldn't have proceeded. Yes, they do have a right to gather evidence and if they have reasonable belief that certain employees knew about it, then they've every right to make contact to them.

Did you think that by bringing an ET case everything is going to be private between you, the employer and the tribunal?

I took from the original post, that the medical condition was disclosed to others BEFORE there was ever a tribunal in the picture, and is one of the reasons that a tribunal is now happening.
I personally, find your last sentence quite rude and unnecessary.

[dc32]

The whole point was that they wanted to prove that those other employees DIDN'T know about the condition, so they told them about it and asked them to comment on whether they had already known about it. Therefore they did not hold the belief that those employees knew about it. They could have asked those people for statements in a totally different way and without revealing my condition to them.


Wyntholia is correct that they had first disclosed the condition during the employment, long before there was any need for a tribunal case.


If my former colleagues had found out about the condition from me or as part of the tribunal, that would have been very different. My concern is the way in which the condition was disclosed to these people (clearly in a disrespectful way with the intended purpose of obtaining statements that were critical of me, despite the fact that all of those criticisms are attributable to my disability), and also that this disclosure was made at a point in time before it is even certain that the tribunal case will progress to the point of actually requiring public hearings.


I never expected privacy once public hearings were held, but I am wondering if it is really ok for my medical details to be revealed to others, in a way over which I have no control, before that point in time. Aren't there laws protecting people's privacy, even claimants in an ET case?


Thanks.

[R0b]

I took from the original post, that the medical condition was disclosed to others BEFORE there was ever a tribunal in the picture, and is one of the reasons that a tribunal is now happening.
I personally, find your last sentence quite rude and unnecessary.

Yes, I understood the disclosure was made before the ET case was brought I simply got it mixed up. Whether you find my response to be rude and unnecessary is entirely your opinion which you are welcome to air, as am I and anyone else on this forum. The last sentence was not in any way intended to be rude, snarky etc. but a valid question to understand the level of knowledge by DC32; case in point given the response in the latest post.

With the exception of the family courts, there is a general principle of open justice which means that unless a court or tribunal orders otherwise, cases are a matter of public record and can be watched or viewed by members of the public. From the moment you issue your case it becomes a matter of public record and Mr Joe Bloggs down the street can make a request to view and access documents.

It's difficult on the face of it to see how they could have gone about it another way without directly asking the question but only a tribunal can answer that one and in my view, I think it is reasonable for an employer who has been accused of a breach of confidentiality to use reasonable measures to provide the best defence possible.

I never expected privacy once public hearings were held, but I am wondering if it is really ok for my medical details to be revealed to others, in a way over which I have no control, before that point in time. Aren't there laws protecting people's privacy, even claimants in an ET case?

As I mentioned above, the moment your case has been submitted, it is public record, at which point you lose your right to keep things private. You can of course request that all matters be kept confidential and not to be made a public record matter but there are strict criteria for doing this and based on what you've said so far, I don't think yours qualifies. By the same token, I still don't think that would have prevented your employer doing from what it has done but that's just my opinion and counts for nothing since it is the Tribunal making all the decisions.

If you feel strongly about the way they've conducted their investigations and preparations for the defence, then by all means raise it in the hearing and the Tribunal can make that determination.

I'm going to tag Ula*who has much better knowledge of the ET process and may come to a different view to me.

[beaconsman]

Same happened too me in a personal injury case, ALL medical details were sought including military medical notes (which were limited admittedly by OSA, (official secrets act). * MY insurance legal reps messed up big time and I lost my future earnings pension etc and they have left me in the cold.* Minster Law are by far the worst cowboy legal firm ever, and I will say that publicly on here. They promised me everything and I ended up with hardly a penny, what I did get was swallowed up by immediate financial hardship issues.* I got knocked off my motorcycle, caught on eyewitness dashcam, yet I am made to be the victim as I had "pre existing injuries"..not the military are arguing the injuries are from the motorcycle accident and not them! unbelievable...