Privacy Notice

March 2021

This notice explains how the Employment Lawyers Association (referred to in this notice as ELA, we, us or our) collects and uses personal data about members of the association to further ELA’s aims. ELA is a data controller.

This notice does not form part of any contract with us. We keep this privacy notice up to date, so if there are any changes to the way in which your personal data is used this privacy notice will be updated and we will notify you of the changes for as long as you remain a member and by posting an up to date copy on our website.

Our contact details are:
Employment Lawyers Association
PO Box 1609,
High Wycombe, HP11 9NG
T 01895 256972    E ela [at] elaweb.org.uk (ela[at]elaweb[dot]org[dot]uk)

Queries in relation to data protection matters should be directed to ELA at privacy [at] elaweb.org.uk 

How do we collect personal data?

What personal data do we collect and how do we use it?

How do we share your personal data?

When do we transfer your personal data overseas?

For how long do we keep your personal data and what are your rights?

How do we collect personal data?

We collect personal data about you and use it in ways that we hope are consistent with the expectations of our members. This broadly fits into two categories:

  • We collect personal data about you from the information you or your firm/chambers/organisation give us when you or they contact us to become a member of the association and through the course of your membership to administer your membership.
  • We collect information about your membership-related activities through the course of your membership with us.

We will never sell your personal data or use it to market commercial products and services (although ELA publications may occasionally carry advertisements which are incidental in nature).

Some data may be shared with third parties, as identified below.

What personal data do we collect and how do we use it?

Your Membership Record

We collect personal contact details, such as name, address, telephone number and email address, type and date of legal qualification, confirmation of material engagement in the provision of employment law services to clients. The contact details we hold for you are usually those of your professional place of work, unless you ask us to hold your personal contact details on your membership record.  You can see the information we hold in your membership record by logging into MY ELA.

Your personal details are used to make decisions about your membership, including eligibility for membership and this is necessary to carry out the contractual obligations set out in ELA’s Memorandum and Articles of Association.  Provision of this information is a contractual requirement and without such information is it is not possible for us to consider your application for membership. 

Transactional Information

We collect start and end date of membership, bank account details where you supply services to us or request a refund from us, payment records for our legitimate interest in collecting your membership fees to further ELA’s objects. Our payment processors and banking arrangements are based in the UK. All our payment card processing is in compliance with the PCI DSS.

Mailings

We use your contact details to offer membership services to you, such as training and events, webinars, providing you with the membership magazine, legal updates and opportunities to undertake pro bono work, providing access to have an entry in the ELA online directories. You can change your mailing preferences by logging into MY ELA.

ELA Online Directories

ELA provides a directory of its members.  Inclusion in the Membership Directory is optional and you can also choose whether your profile is viewable only by other members or is accessible to the public.

ELA also maintains a Register of Mediators for members who are suitably qualified.  Inclusion in the Register of Mediators is also optional and you can choose whether your entry is viewable only by other members or is accessible to the public.

When you choose to have an entry in the ELA online Membership Directory and/or Register of Mediators you may choose to upload your photograph and provide details about the professional services you offer.   The personal data that you provide in connection with the Membership Directory and/or Register of Mediators is processed for the legitimate purpose of promoting the professional services of our members and in order to further the aims of the Association. 

You can update your entries in both these directories and change your privacy preferences at any time by logging into MY ELA.

ELA Events

When you book to attend, or speak, at ELA events we use your name and firm name in the event delegate list, which is shared with other members attending or organising the event and the speakers, who may be located outside the EEA and by agreeing to have your name included in the delegate list you consent to the transfer of your personal data to any delegate who may be located outside the EEA. When you book an event, you are given an opportunity to tell us if you do not want your name to be included on the event delegate list.

Delegate lists are also made available on the ELA Event App to members who are booked to attend the event.

If you have chosen to upload a photograph to our Membership Directory and if your profile is viewable by other ELA members, your photograph and basic biographical details will also appear in the ELA Event App for other attendees to the event to view.

We also collect your dietary and other special needs requirements which you tell us about and which we share with the venues where we hold our events.    Where you provide this information you consent to our using it for the limited purpose for which it is provided.  You can review, change or delete your requirements by logging into MY ELA.

ELA uses external webinar platforms to record and broadcast virtual training and social events. Members' email are passed through to the webinar platforms to enable their access to the webinar broadcast. After the webinar has been broadcast, all members' data is deleted from the webinar platform, and is only retained by ELA in accordance with our data retention policy for delegate lists of past events.

When you participate in or volunteer for ELA services or projects

We collect additional data about you if you volunteer or participate in ELA services and projects. The specific data and purposes for which it is collected is detailed below.

Speaking at ELA events
We collect evaluation data from delegates about ELA events you speak at which is shared with other ELA members who serve on the relevant ELA organising committee to support and further the aims of ELA’s training programme. We also collect the materials (slides, hand outs etc) you provide to us for the events, which we make available to other ELA members which is necessary for the legitimate purpose of furthering ELA’s aims.

Recording webinars
We collect video footage and your opinions in webinars you agree to record for us which is necessary for the legitimate purpose of furthering ELA’s aims.  By agreeing to participate you understand that these webinars are posted online and you consent to this content being accessible to users located outside the UK.

Providing articles to our membership magazine ELA Briefing
We collect your photograph and your opinions about employment law related matters when you agree to write an article for us, which we share with other members, including those located outside the UK.

Volunteering in pro bono schemes
We collect the information you tell us about your qualifications and professional insurance which we share with other ELA members who serve on the relevant organising committee and pro bono agencies who provide insurance for our pro bono projects, to facilitate and manage ELA’s pro bono services.

Participating in ELA's legislative and policy work
We collect your name when you agree to participate in ELA’s policy work and as otherwise necessary when coordinating joint responses to legislative proposals. Your personal data is shared, in the form of the list of working party members, with government and other bodies and is viewable publicly on the ELA website when we publish our consultation and other responses, which is necessary for the legitimate purpose of furthering ELA’s aims.

Elections to the ELA Management Committee
We engage professional electoral services to carry out elections to the management committee, which are carried out anonymously.  Aggregated voting data will be collected and shared with us but voting is otherwise anonymous. We will share the information members standing in the elections give to us in their Nomination Form with electoral services for the purposes of conducting the ballot.This is necessary for the purposes of performing the contractual obligations set out in ELA’s Memorandum and Articles of Association.

Running ELA
We occasionally use information set out above to help decide how best to manage ELA and the membership services that we provide.  We may also use information to help resolve technical problems using the website.   We process this information where necessary for the legitimate purpose of furthering ELA’s aims.

Due to the nature of ELA, there may be occasions where we process your personal data in other ways in order to further ELA’s aims, for example in order to introduce new initiatives or to consult with the membership about issues of the day.

How do we share your personal data?

We share your data in the ways specified above.

In addition, as you would expect, we also use third party suppliers to provide services to us, such as IT, email and website systems providers and contractors, election management, accounting and audit, survey, payment and publishing service providers in order to provide membership services to you.  We use a range of CSPs (cloud service providers) as part of our processing environment. Where we share your personal data with third parties we ensure that we have appropriate measures in place to safeguard it and to ensure that it is solely used for legitimate purposes in line with this privacy policy. We maintain a Register of Third Party Suppliers.

As a membership organisation much of our work is undertaken by volunteers who make use of their firm/chambers/organisation’s email systems to communicate and in the event that you contact other members about ELA projects then please understand that ELA has no control over these third party systems. 


When do we transfer your personal data overseas?

Due to the international nature of our membership base we will occasionally transfer personal data outside the UK. Data transfers are made in accordance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation or “EU GDPR”.

For how long do we keep your personal data and what are your rights?

The ELA Management Committee has considered the appropriate retention of members’ personal details for ELA's different activities and after they have ceased to be a member. ELA's retention policy and periods is set out below.

 
Data type: Current members
Where it resides: ELA member's website
Retention period: Records of current members are kept while they remain members. Once cancelled, their records are subject to the retention periods set out below. Hourly back up system and back ups are retained securely for 30 days in a secure environment.
Justification: Business continuity

Data type: Members who have cancelled membership within 4 years 
Where it resides: ELA member's website
Retention period: The full membership record is retained for a period of 4 years after a member's membership has been cancelled
Justification:  Business continuity 

Data type: Members who have cancelled membership after 4 years
Where it resides: ELA member's website
Retention period: Between 4 and 7 years a member's record is purged of all data except financial data (orders for ELA services). 
Justification: Statutory requirement

Data type: Members' orders information which contain personal data
Where it resides: ELA member's website and ELA bookkeeping systems
Retention period: 7 years
Justification: Statutory requirement

Data type: Names on delegate lists of past events
Where it resides: ELA member's website
Retention period: 4 years
Justification: Analysis of event take-up to inform future training planning

Data type: Names on delegate lists of past events
Where it resides: ELA Event Apps
Retention period: Deleted from the app after 3 months of date of event 

Data type: Speakers database and speaker feedback summaries with anonymised delegate feedback and scores
Where it resides: ELA member's website and ELA file-sharing platform
Retention period: 10 years
Justification: Quality control for ELA training programmes

Data type: Lecture notes provided by speakers at ELA events containing the name/organisation of the speaker
Where it resides: Lecture Notes section of ELA website and ELA file-sharing platform
Retention period: Kept indefinitely
Justification: Research and historical archive

Data type: Webinars containing the name/organisation of the speaker
Where it resides: Webinar section of ELA website
Retention period: Kept indefinitely
Justification: Research and historical archive

Data type: Articles written for ELA Briefing containing name/organisation of the author
Where it resides: ELA Briefing section of ELA website
Retention period: Kept indefinitely
Justification: Research and historical archive

Data type: Legislative & policy papers/consultation responses containing name/organisation of working party members Where it resides: Consultation sections of ELA website and ELA file-sharing platform
Retention period: Kept indefinitely
Justification: Research and historical archive

Data type: ELA management committee election data
Where it resides: ELA internal Sharepoint files
Retention period: 2 years from date of AGM at which members were elected
Justification: To monitor member engagement and deal with queries arising

Data type: Personal data collected for legitimate purposes in ELA surveys
Where it resides: ELA survey platform and ELA file-sharing platform
Retention period: 1 year on the survey platform. Anonymised survey responses are kept in ELA internal Sharepoint files indefinitely
Justification: Business continuity and research purposes

Data type: Purchase ledger - personal data contained in supplier invoices/expenses claims
Where it resides: ELA bookkeeping systems
Retention period: 7 years
Justification: Statutory requirement

Data type: Personal data contained in bank account details provided to ELA as part of payment requests 
Where it resides: The online banking system provided by ELA's bank(s)
Retention period: Bank details not used for 3 years are deleted
Justification: Business continuity

Data type: Personal data contained in ELIPS scheme litigant advice documents
Where it resides: Intralinks VIA , a cloud-based file storage system
Retention period: 6 years
Justification: Statutory limitation period for claims in negligence


The generally applicable rights always apply: right to be informed, right of access, right to rectification, right to erasure, right to restriction and rights in relation to automated decision making. For more information please see Your rights in relation to your personal data provided by ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office), the UK’s supervisory authority.