Fórsa’s national executive has adopted new data protection policies to ensure that the union is compliant with the EU Data Protection Directive (GDPR), which came into effect on 25th May.

GDPR will have a profound impact how on the union handles personal data in its head office, regional offices, and in the voluntary branch structure.

Head office is in the process of implementing a comprehensive data protection project, which will involve the appointment of a senior administrative officer as data protection officer later this month. Data protection champions are also being appointed, with at least one based in each full-time office location.

Over 20 staff members from all the union’s offices attended an initial training programme last month.

All Fórsa offices are being sent practical advice to ensure GDPR compliance. The union will also advise every branch in relation to the processing and storage of data, the handling of data access requests, and procedures for dealing with any breach of data protection.

All these matters are governed by the new GDPR legislation, which introduces hefty fines for failure to comply.

The union has invested in a management tool to log all GDPR issues, and is intent on building a comprehensive list of the measures we’re adopting so that we can demonstrate that we are making ourselves GDPR compliant.

It’s important that all sections of the union engage with the roll-out of these measures to ensure that we adopt a common and comprehensive GDPR plan across the organisation.