by Kate Ramsden
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John Stevenson
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he STUC will call for more resources and a moratorium
on job cuts in the public sector until better security
is put in place to protect personal information,
after a motion from Dundee Trades Council and the
PCS union, backed by UNISON Scotland.
The call comes after a series of highly publicised
losses of data, where staff have been blamed instead
of the cuts and privatisations that have led to
an unsafe system.
UNISON's John Stevenson warned that it was not
only 'unintentional' disclosure of personal information
that was the problem - but also 'intentional' disclosure,
as more and more agencies share systems with the
danger of details being 'reaped' without people
knowing.
"We now work in a range of projects that are joint
funded, where statutory agencies work together and
in turn work with voluntary and private agencies.
More often than not, their systems don't match,"
said John, "with the risk of disks having to
be passed manually."
But even more crucially, he warned, these agencies
may have widely differing approaches to confidentiality.
"Our worry is that organisations are becoming so
defensive about getting into trouble for not sharing
information that they are drifting into blanket
information sharing," warned John.
As council cuts bite, the very people who maintain
data and keep it safe are under attack in terms
of their wages and job cuts.
"All too often, politicians see admin staff as
'bureaucracy' rather than the essential support
to front line services," he said.
"We need sound systems and money to deliver them.
We need to protect our members from scapegoating
at work. But we also have to protect them in their
wider lives from a growing culture that data protection
is something to get around, rather than something
to respect," said John.
Scotland's
public service union
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