Privacy policy

What to expect when the National Education Union (NEU) collects and processes your personal and sensitive data.

This privacy notice was updated in March 2021 and explains what to expect when the National Education Union (NEU) collects and processes your personal and sensitive data.

This privacy statement will be updated at intervals to ensure compliance with legislation such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018. 

Who we are

The NEU is the data controller of your personal data and our registered address is: NEU, Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, London WC1H 9BD

Our Data Protection Officer, Kathy Monah can be contacted at [email protected]. The NEU complies with its obligation under relevant legislation by keeping personal data up to date; by secure storage and destruction; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal and sensitive data. 

Why we process your information (our lawful basis)

Your membership agreement with the Union means that we are authorised to process data that is legally regarded as ‘sensitive’ – such as Union membership itself. Under the GDPR, we must always have a lawful basis for using personal data. Reference to personal data may include items such as your name, address, contact details, date of birth, biographic information (e.g. where you work, your qualifications, subjects taught) and bank details.   Sensitive data will include your details of your trade union membership, any equality information you provide to us and any health or other sensitive information you provide us that is relevant to negotiations/casework we undertake on your behalf.

Our primary lawful basis for using your data is that the processing is necessary for our legitimate interests and activities as a trade union (article 9(2)d of GDPR)

Our legitimate interests are based on our national rules, which includes the interests of you as an individual member and of members of the union generally.

Our purposes for using your information

We collect and use your data to deliver services and support to you; to manage those services and membership benefits we provide to you as set out in our recruitment literature and website; to manage your membership, including subscription administration; and to develop and assist with a range of Union-based activities related to the running of the NEU. 

More specifically, your data is used for the following purposes:

Data use policies
PurposeExplanation
For administrating your membership
  • Processing your membership subscription payments.
  • The administration and management of your membership and your membership record.
  • To notify you of changes to your annual subscription rates, services and benefits.
  • To administer benefits, such as the Union Trust Fund.
Casework
  • Assisting with employment disputes, injury claims and casework i.e. to provide you with support, assistance, advice and/or representation in an individual or collective case.
Courses
  • We collect your contact details to record course attendance, and completed online assessments. We also collect equality and diversity data from course attendees in an anonymized form.
Events
  • We will process your data for the purpose of booking events which may also include any dietary or special requirements you notify us of.

Equality monitoring (providing this information is optional).

Access to information held in respect of ethnic origin, disability, sexual orientation or transgender status is restricted and will remain confidential on NEU files for monitoring and other relevant and appropriate purposes as described in the next column.

  • It enables the NEU to provide members sharing equality characteristics with information that may be of interest, including for the purposes of elections to the NEU’s Executive.
  • Information you give will form the basis of statistical reports.
  • It will help us to target relevant information on campaigns, events and services to particular groups of our membership.
  • It will enable us to check that we are meeting our commitment to promoting equal opportunities for all our members.
Communications
  • To send you statutory communications and ensuring you can vote in elections and ballots.
  • To provide you with communications about NEU activities in relation to:
  • negotiation and representation
  • union benefits and services
  • training courses and continuous professional development
  • internal democracy of the NEU
  • surveys
  • campaigns and petitions
Communication preferences

When you engage with any of our campaigns the following information is automatically captured by our communications systems:

What campaign you engage with, the time you open a message and the links you click in the message.

This data helps us tailor our communications to you in the most effective way provided that you are subscribed to our communications.

Donations

If you make a donation to an NEU campaign, the NEU will record details of your donation (amount) and the campaign you engaged in against your member record on our communication system.

No payment card details will be kept by the Union when you donate online.

Non-members

If you are not a member of the Union, but you sign one of our petitions or donate to one of our campaigns, we will store your name, contact details and campaign you engaged on including any information on communication preferences (set out above).

We will use your contact details to keep you updated on the campaign you engage with and any other campaigns  of the NEU as long as we have your opt-in consent to do so.

We may use additional information from publicly available social networking sources to help us better target our digital advertising.

Promotions/prize drawsWe may use your personal data to contact you for the specified purpose and seek your consent for any post-promotion processing.
Legal requirementsWe may use your data to comply with any other legal requirements.

Who do we share your data with?

We are committed to protecting the data you have provided and respecting your rights and privacy in line with current legislation. Subject to appropriate internal authorisations, some of your data will be available to NEU employees, local district officers, branch officers, workplace representatives and others formally instructed by the NEU for the purposes of carrying out trade union duties.

Our workplace representatives can access limited member data (name, membership number, membership type, contact details and workplace) for their workplace only so they can communicate with members in their workplace on Union related matters.

Our local branches and districts can also access limited member data for members in their branches and districts (this includes name, membership number, membership type, contact details, workplace information, committee positions and membership status).  This information is used by districts for planning meetings and events, sending newsletters and campaigns and for training and development purposes.

When a new case is received by the Union, it may be sent to a local branch for handling. This means that some members of the local branch (Branch Secretary and accredited caseworkers) will access your initial case details so they can triage and allocate the casework. Once a case is assigned, your caseworker will be in touch with you from their NEU email address so you can communicate directly with them.

Third parties 

Some of your information will be made available to other organisations associated with the NEU, including agents, contractors, venues for any events you are booked on and other service providers, such as IT providers with whom we have a contractual agreement.

In the course of our operations, some of your personal data will be transferred to our service providers as outlined below. Where the NEU uses the services of such organisations, they are contractually obliged to process your data in a secure and confidential manner under our strict instructions, and in line with current legislation. The type of data shared will be relevant to the purpose for which the data is used and is subject to additional security measures including password protection and encryption.

Purpose for sharingName of third party

Mailing Houses

Your contact details will be shared with NEU authorised mailing houses for publication order fulfillment and to send you membership communication such as subscription notices.

Our mailing houses are Precision, Precision House, Lamdin Road, Bury St Edmunds IP32 6NU

Solu4ions Ltd 2 Wharf Street Canning Town, London, E16 4BS

NEU Rewards

The NEU does not pass any member data on to benefits partners. Members may choose to share their personal data directly with partners by registering for marketing emails on myRewards, by entering partner competitions, or by seeking quotes, advice, services, or products directly from our partners.

Our benefits partners are Parliament Hill and Teachers Building Society

Processing online applications 

Complete membership applications are passed securely and immediately to the NEU's membership database and are subsequently automatically deleted from Join Together's servers.

The NEU works with Join Together Cooperative Ltd who provide our online joining forms and send email reminders about incomplete membership applications. 

Campaigns, petitions and NEU communications

We use a number of third party platforms to communicate with you about any NEU campaigns, petitions and activities unless you have unsubscribed from such communications.   

The platforms we use are:

  • Action network
  • Dot Digital
  • Thrutext
  • Mailchimp
  • Call Hub

Surveys and research

We may use the contact information you have provided to ask you to take part in surveys or focus groups to help the NEU achieve its constitutional purposes. 

We may also share the results of surveys or focus groups you participate in to further the legitimate interests of members. Such data is anonymised to ensure individual members cannot be identified. 

We typically use global surveying platforms such as Dotdigital and Survey Monkey. We also use a platform called Thrutext to send surveys by text.  We also work with a third party company called Ten Boroughs who make calls to members on our behalf for such purposes.

Video conferencing

To conduct meetings and trainings remotely

We use the following videoconferencing software

  • Zoom
  • Microsoft teams

Social networking

There will be occasions where we invite you to join social networking platforms so you can network post event or interact with other members.

Joining is entirely voluntary and you can choose whether or not to sign up. 

Our local branch and district officers may also use social media platforms to interact with members.

These will include instant messaging platforms and we also have an NEU Facebook page where individuals and our members can interact with the Union.

We use the Facebook custom audience tool to promote union activities to those subscribed to our communications.

Statutory obligations – ballots and elections

Legislation requires that ballots are administered by an independent scrutineer.

The NEU employs Civica to despatch ballot papers, and process returned papers. We therefore provide the independent scrutineer with personal data including your name and address to enable them to do this.

Industrial action

We are legally obliged to inform the employer about any members who will be taking industrial action. By law this is limited to the number of employees taking action. We will not provide the employer with names and contact details.

 

Legal and employment rights services

We collect and store information when you contact our specialist advisory teams, legal and employment rights teams, national or regional representatives by telephone, email or post. Such information is subject to restricted access and is kept in secure ‘casework files’.

Data sharing is subject to additional security measures including password protection and encryption.

When providing legal support, we may be required to share relevant information with appointed legal counsels, the employer, ACAS, and the relevant tribunal or court. 

Courses

We will always seek your consent before sharing your contact details with learning providers. In some cases, it may be a course requirement to share your contact details with course tutors so they can support you on the course.

Statistical/aggregated equality and diversity data and information on training courses attended is supplied to Union Learn and other third parties in an anonymised form. These statistics are shared to allow the funding organisations to evaluate funding reach.
EventsWe may share delegate names and any special requirements to events venues for health and safety, dietary or access reasons.
NEU student and trainee membersWe have engaged Forward Emphasis International (FEI) to contact existing NEU student members to encourage them to continue their membership with the NEU in a professional capacity.  We will share student member contact details with FEI for this purpose.
Legal obligationWe will disclose your personal information to third parties if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data to comply with any legal or regulatory obligation or request

NEU Insurance

Through your membership of the NEU, you may be entitled to financial assistance in the event of accident, death of injury, damage to vehicle, or theft of damage of personal possessions while at work.

We collect and store information pertaining to your claim when you contact our insurance team by telephone, email or post. Such information is subject to restricted access and is kept in secure ‘casework files’. If you make an insurance claim, our insurance team will share your relevant data with the insurance company, Alan Boswell Insurance Brokers Ltd.

Data sharing is subject to additional security measures including password protection.

Alan Boswell Insurance Brokers Ltd
Prospect House,
Rouen Road,
Norwich,
NR1 1RE

01603 218000

[email protected]

www.alanboswell.com

Union partners

MU

The NEU has a joint membership arrangement with the Musician’s Union. NEU member data may be shared with the MU where the member is also a member of the MU and for the purpose of verifying membership to ensure that the member is entitled to the discounted rate. Data sharing may also take place for the purpose of promoting joint NEU/MU events such as CPD for music teachers. Where data is shared with the MU for these purposes, it will be encrypted and handled in accordance with the NEU and MU’s data sharing agreement.

EIS

The NEU has a data sharing agreement in place with the EIS in Scotland. When members whose workplace is in Scotland join the NEU, they are informed that all support and benefits will be provided by our sister union The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS). In order for EIS to be able to provide members with this service, the NEU shares member data with EIS in accordance with the NEU and EIS data sharing agreement. Members may prefer to join EIS directly visit www.eis.org.uk

Tranfers overseas

We do not routinely transfer your data outside of the UK or the European Economic Area. Where this is necessary, we ensure appropriate data protection measures are in place.

How long do we keep your data for?

We will only keep your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, auditing, or reporting requirements. 

We retain membership data for the duration of your membership. If your membership is cancelled, we may still contact you within 3 months from leaving with a survey to ask about your reasons for leaving.  Beyond this point, your record will become inactive and not be used to contact you or process any information about you except for any administrative checks our staff may need to carry out to check if a member is still in membership or not when determining eligibility for certain services.

We will completely delete your record 7 years from the point your membership is cancelled.

A subset of your membership details may be kept for a minimum period after death allowing your family members unencumbered access to the union’s benevolent fund, a discretionary benefit of the Union. 

Casework – The data is retained for a maximum of 7 years after the closure of the case. Casefiles are retained should there be a legal claim or complaint. 

We retain information on individuals who are not members (non-members) in certain circumstances for e.g. where you have booked to attend one of our events or engaged with our petitions or campaigns.  This data is deleted once no longer necessary.    

At the end of any retention period, data that is required for research or statistical purposes will be anonymised so that it can no longer be associated with you. 

Your rights

The GDPR sets out a number of rights that you as a member have over your data and your privacy.  Below is a brief overview as they relate to your membership and interaction with the Union. We will need to verify your identity before we are able to fulfil each right request. 

Right to be informed – We must inform you about our collection and use of your personal data and we do this through our privacy notice as well as at the point of collection. 

Right of access – You have the right to access your personal data that we hold about you. If you prefer you can make a subject access request (SAR) for all or parts of your data. The Union will respond to your subject access request within 30 days, in line with relevant legislation. To request a copy of the data we hold about you, please send your request to the Data Protection Officer at the above address, or email [email protected] and include the following information: your NEU membership number (if known), your full name and address and a description of the data required, including the date range. 

Right to erasure (also known as right to be forgotten) - You have the right to request deletion of all or some of the data we hold on you where it is no longer necessary for the data controller to retain such data. We will always seek to comply with your request, unless we are required to retain data for legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. However, where appropriate, data will be anonymised. 

Right to rectification – You have the right to request that we correct any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate. As a member you can update your details using MyNEU. You can also do this by contacting [email protected].  

Right to restrict processing – Where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, you have the right to request a restriction is placed on further processing of your data; This right is not absolute and is subject to our review of your request as well as assessing if it is feasible for us to comply.  

Right to data portability – If you have provided personal data to us directly, we are using it with your consent or for the performance of a contract, and that data is processed using automated means, you can request a copy of that personal data to transfer to another data controller where technically feasible. 

Right to object – You have the right to request we stop processing (using) your data for certain purposes. These include direct e-mail marketing.

Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling – You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.  We currently do not make such decisions based on these methods.

However, we do collect information on your communication preferences as outlined in ‘our purposes’ section which helps us target our communications to you in the most effective way. 

Monitoring – We monitor all emails sent to us for viruses and malicious software. In order to make sure we follow your instructions correctly and to improve our service to you through proper training of our staff, we may monitor or record communications. 

The NEU is committed to upholding your rights as a data subject. If you have any concerns with our processing of your data, please email [email protected] or write to the Data Protection Officer, Kathy Monah at the above address. 

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

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