Emergency contact number question

[limpid]

No personal data has been acquired which would qualify under the DPA. They don't have her name, just a phone number which could belong to anyone or anything. In this case my understanding is that the DPA would regard this data as *his* data, not hers. He'd be the one who'd have to bring a case. With the DPA there are some fixed penalties though which might compensate more than loss incurred or distress. I would suspect that there would be little sympathy from the judge / maistratefor what would be seen as a trivial issue, so I wouldn't expect costs to be awarded.

[Risso]

It's a strange emergency contact form that doesn't ask for a name, description of the relationship and the phone number. If they have her name and number, then you are entirely wrong.

In an emergency, what do you think they're going to do, phone up and say "is that erm, oh bugger, we didn't actually ask who the number belongs to, we'll have to mention that to HR on Monday. But anyway, oh yes, your boyfriend has stuck his fingers in a plug socket. Sorry."

[limpid]

It's a strange emergency contact form that doesn't ask for a name, description of the relationship and the phone number. If they have her name and number, then you are entirely wrong.

Yes, if the OP shared a lot more info than he said, then I am wrong. Even then this data wasn't released or made public, it was used inappropriately.

In an emergency, what do you think they're going to do, phone up and say "is that erm, oh bugger, we didn't actually ask who the number belongs to, we'll have to mention that to HR on Monday. But anyway, oh yes, your boyfriend has stuck his fingers in a plug socket. Sorry."

"Hello we have your number on file as the emergency contact for Mr Bloggs, are we speaking to the correct person?"

But I have no idea. I've not seen the form, I did ask what the OP had actually agreed to and I formed the impression that it was just a phone number. I get the feeling that the OP didn't even keep a copy of the form, being a casual job I guess he didn't really think about what he was completing or consenting to.

Let's assume that the employer is found guilty of a breach of the DPA. This would need to be a private prosecution because Ofcom won't act on a single instance. What material harm has been caused? I'd already said that this was probably enough to get him out of his contract if that's what he wanted.

[The_Rev]

Isnt this making a mountain out of a molehill?

[RunRickyRun]

I remember a few years ago my mum getting a call from my boss asking if I was in prison. Apparently some of the people I'd gone out with had got into a fight at the old Digbeth Coach station and the cops were called. Luckily, I had left by then as I was off buying cigarettes - and they say they are bad for you

[Dodgyknees]

Isnt this making a mountain out of a molehill?

Nope.

As stated, the number and contact details for emergency was for illness and accident only, it states this on the form I filled out.

In fact, I got a copy of it today and it says "A person will ONLY be called if there is an accident or emergency"

I phoned head office and they confirmed this is not company policy.

I want my time, to do my things, to be my time and not for somebody to ring up when I have given no such permission for this. I hardly get time to do things as it is.

[The_Rev]

You dont have time to tell them you are unavailable to do overtime? On the phone that would be less than thirty seconds out of your day, surely?

[Dodgyknees]

My phone was on silent, sat on charge. And it was the tone of what he said. Me having 30 seconds to say no, doesn't make him going against company policy right.. surely?

[dont_do_it_doug.]

My phone was on silent, sat on charge. And it was the tone of what he said. Me having 30 seconds to say no, doesn't make him going against company policy right.. surely?

Probably not.

But what you gonna do?

Genuine question that. You've every right to complain from the sounds of it, but on a 3 hour a week contract that likely makes your position untenable like it or not.

I'd probably give him what for and screw the £100.

[Juju]

I want my time, to do my things, to be my time and not for somebody to ring up when I have given no such permission for this. I hardly get time to do things as it is.

So let me get this right? Your actually saving hard to go to America. You live on the Isle of Wight or somewhere grim where jobs in a recession are tough to come by. You didn't say if this is your only job, this 3 hours a week you barely manage to squeeze in to your social calendar, (and your 10088 VT posts) and then when they ring you up, offering you more work, (presumably more money for America- which appears important to you) and make extensive efforts to ensure you are offered it, you attitude is "how dare you try hard and make extensive efforts to offer me more hours/money, I want to go to a music festival.... "

To be honest,

if A) is true and you don't have a proper alternative occupation with a proper wage, then your attitude stinks.

if It's an side job, then why not let it go to someone who really needs it and would actually value it? You clearly don't, and if they read this post, what would they make of your frankly childish attitude?

Thirdly - So what are you taking legal action for? because they haven't just handed you a gold bar or something? Because I'm confused now... you want money, they offer it, and you go off on one. If they'd rung your phone the once, got no reply and you rang back 15 mins later and they'd offered it to someone else, you'd be moaning that they'd not tried hard enough to get hold of you.... I love the idea you were "so busy" you couldn't find 30 seconds to speak to them.... are you actually Sir Alan Sugar or something? Essentially the basis of the legal action you outline is that you have suffered a loss through their actions, which requires some sort of compensation. The loss might be a moments inconvenience to your girlfriend in answering the phone and any cost to her of doing so. I think you probably worked out by now thats worth roughly £0.

You seem to have lost sight that them making successful contact with you was in YOUR interest, to pay YOU MORE MONEY, which is why you work there.

This is one of the poorest rants I have ever seen here. Max mark I can award is 3/10. Could have done with more expletives and block capitals. Lost a mark for not naming and shaming the company involved. Although you did get 2 marks simply for the utter pointlessness of it all. I expect a better, more bellicose and incoherent tirade of abuse for your next effort. I feel you have at least a 6/10 in you somewhere.

[The_Rev]

My phone was on silent, sat on charge. And it was the tone of what he said. Me having 30 seconds to say no, doesn't make him going against company policy right.. surely?

Possibly, but to me it seems the issue isnt the fact that they phoned you at home, its the fact that you dont like your job or your boss or something. To react like this to being asked a simple question doesnt strike me as the behaviour of a happy employee. I cant speak for everybody, obviously, but in my experience when people get phoned at home and asked if they can come in then a simple yes or no answer is the end of it. Asking if you have any grounds to take action against your company (or at least implying that is your intention) is a massive over reaction.

[TheDon]

Possibly, but to me it seems the issue isnt the fact that they phoned you at home

It's pretty obvious the issue isn't the fact they phoned him at home.

I'm sure this thread wouldn't have appeared if they'd stopped at phoning his mobile and his home, but they didn't, they phoned his emergency contact number.

Whilst I think it's still an overreaction and it's something that's not worth pursuing, it's far from "phoning him at home", especially when you consider that it was likely a mobile number, and depending on how much the emergency contact knew it could have been a pretty worrying conversation.

"Hi I'm phoning from xxx, we have you down as dodgyknees' emergency contact..."

would probably instil a bit of panic in a great many a person if they didn't know he wasn't at work.

I can see why someone would be pretty pissed off to have their emergency contact called for something other than them being involved in an accident.

[The_Rev]

Is that what happened though? How I read it is that they phoned Dodgyknees, couldnt get through so they phoned his missus to ask if he could do overtime. They could have opened with any line, and presumably they would have opted to go for a less scary one than that. Given that the contracted hours are only three per week the chances of them phoning while he is at work are pretty remote, especially when you consider they were phoning to ask a question which they would have asked in person had they had the chance.

The definition of emergency wasnt established either, it could mean that they call only in a medical emergency when things are a matter of life or death or it could mean that they really needed somebody to keep the business open that particular day.

I dont think I am being a dick about this. I have known the OP via the internets in one way or another for at least ten years, from way back on the official Villa forums, we had countless hours of chat back in the day when the old Yahoo chat rooms were all the rage, but going on the information I have got from this thread so far it just strikes me as a quite spectacular over reaction. Work have phoned me at home before and I have definitely grumbled about their cheek to the missus or my mates or whatever but this strikes me as somebody going out of their way to be offended, presumably because there are other issues and this is just a convenient reason to have a go. If I am wrong then I apologise completely, but I dont think I am. To be that annoyed about a simple phonecall is bonkers.

[chrisp65]

I'd have to side with the Rev here.

I'm not seeing an international human rights issue in this.

[YLN]

Reminds me of the time my father went out fishing with his friends in bad weather. My mother didn't like him going and was worried that the boat would capsize and they would drown. The boat had capsized on previous occasions. They arrived back to land after the trip and my father asked a friend of his to ring home and let my mother know he was alright. The friend dialed the number, "Is that mammy yillan? Your husband is dead!". My father leapt over to grab the phone, but I can only imagine the panic on the other end.

[snowychap]

The definition of emergency wasnt established either, it could mean that they call only in a medical emergency when things are a matter of life or death or it could mean that they really needed somebody to keep the business open that particular day.

Oh, come on - it's a hell of a stretch to take 'emergency' as really needing (or even just really wanting) him to work.

Most of us have filled out one of those forms for some if not most of the places where we have worked and I find it difficult to believe that people would genuinely think that it would be used for any other reason than to tell the emergency contact that there was a problem (an illness, accident or emergency) regarding the employee.

It isn't just an extra contact number (here, lads, you can get hold of me via my other half if there's a problem with the first two numbers), it's an emergency contact number.

Yes, Dodgy's post may be a bit of an overreaction but I do think it was unreasonable for his employer to ring the emergency contact to ask him to work.

[mjmooney]

Reminds me of the time my father went out fishing with his friends in bad weather. My mother didn't like him going and was worried that the boat would capsize and they would drown. The boat had capsized on previous occasions. They arrived back to land after the trip and my father asked a friend of his to ring home and let my mother know he was alright. The friend dialed the number, "Is that mammy yillan? Your husband is dead!". My father leapt over to grab the phone, but I can only imagine the panic on the other end.

My mate did something similar to my missus (although she was at that time my rather new girlfriend) when I did the London marathon in 1982. She was supposed to be coming down to London with me, but she was ill, so I went on my own. I finished the race OK in a tidy 3:39, but he phoned her to tell her I'd collapsed and was in hospital in intensive care. She **** freaked - took her some time to forgive him.

[ender4]

Is that what happened though? How I read it is that they phoned Dodgyknees, couldnt get through so they phoned his missus to ask if he could do overtime. They could have opened with any line, and presumably they would have opted to go for a less scary one than that. Given that the contracted hours are only three per week the chances of them phoning while he is at work are pretty remote, especially when you consider they were phoning to ask a question which they would have asked in person had they had the chance.

The definition of emergency wasnt established either, it could mean that they call only in a medical emergency when things are a matter of life or death or it could mean that they really needed somebody to keep the business open that particular day.

I dont think I am being a dick about this. I have known the OP via the internets in one way or another for at least ten years, from way back on the official Villa forums, we had countless hours of chat back in the day when the old Yahoo chat rooms were all the rage, but going on the information I have got from this thread so far it just strikes me as a quite spectacular over reaction. Work have phoned me at home before and I have definitely grumbled about their cheek to the missus or my mates or whatever but this strikes me as somebody going out of their way to be offended, presumably because there are other issues and this is just a convenient reason to have a go. If I am wrong then I apologise completely, but I dont think I am. To be that annoyed about a simple phonecall is bonkers.

I think you and Juju are totally & completely missing the point.

There is no complaint about ringing him, no complaint about ringing his home, no complaint about ringing to offer more work, no complaint about having to work more.

The issue is that this is an EMERGENCY contact number.

His manager should not even have access to this number, only HR should have access to this number, and for the manager to get access to this number, he should have to ask HR for it (with a very strong valid reason).

So in this case, how has the manager got hold of this number?

This EMERGENCY contact number should only be dialled in an EMERGENCY, ie: the employee is in hospital, the employee is dying, the employee is dead, the employee is seriously injured. Thats about the only 4 reasons i can think where they are allowed to ring this number.

[The_Rev]

Yes, I know. I also live in the real world and appreciate when a business is desperately trying to get hold of an employee (for whatever reason) and they have a phone number available to them then they are going to be tempted to call it. I am just incredibly surprised at the reaction, that is all. I'd have thought the adult way of sorting this out would have been with two simple sentences; 1] that he is unavailable for overtime and 2] could they refrain from calling the number again unless it is in the event of a medical emergency. Asking on a public forum if he has any grounds for legal action is at least as unreasonable as making the phone call in the first place. Am I wrong in thinking that you would only do that if you hated your job or your boss and saw this as a potential opportunity to pick a fight?

[Dodgyknees]

Is that what happened though? How I read it is that they phoned Dodgyknees, couldnt get through so they phoned his missus to ask if he could do overtime. They could have opened with any line, and presumably they would have opted to go for a less scary one than that. Given that the contracted hours are only three per week the chances of them phoning while he is at work are pretty remote, especially when you consider they were phoning to ask a question which they would have asked in person had they had the chance.

The definition of emergency wasnt established either, it could mean that they call only in a medical emergency when things are a matter of life or death or it could mean that they really needed somebody to keep the business open that particular day.

I dont think I am being a dick about this. I have known the OP via the internets in one way or another for at least ten years, from way back on the official Villa forums, we had countless hours of chat back in the day when the old Yahoo chat rooms were all the rage, but going on the information I have got from this thread so far it just strikes me as a quite spectacular over reaction. Work have phoned me at home before and I have definitely grumbled about their cheek to the missus or my mates or whatever but this strikes me as somebody going out of their way to be offended, presumably because there are other issues and this is just a convenient reason to have a go. If I am wrong then I apologise completely, but I dont think I am. To be that annoyed about a simple phonecall is bonkers.

I think you and Juju are totally & completely missing the point.

There is no complaint about ringing him, no complaint about ringing his home, no complaint about ringing to offer more work, no complaint about having to work more.

The issue is that this is an EMERGENCY contact number.

His manager should not even have access to this number, only HR should have access to this number, and for the manager to get access to this number, he should have to ask HR for it (with a very strong valid reason).

So in this case, how has the manager got hold of this number?

This EMERGENCY contact number should only be dialled in an EMERGENCY, ie: the employee is in hospital, the employee is dying, the employee is dead, the employee is seriously injured. Thats about the only 4 reasons i can think where they are allowed to ring this number.

THIS exactly

And I was proposing that day, so.. kind of pissed me off that on a day I wanted it just her.. she had a call from my work...

^ Didn't want to say that before, wanted to have it between us for a week, but that is the reason I was so pissed off and ender has it perfectly.