The University of Derby has reported itself to the Information Commissioner¡¯s Office after letters sent to staff accidentally revealed they were vulnerable to redundancy.?

The East Midlands institution last week informed employees that it was looking to cut 265 roles, with 534 people at risk. It sent follow-up letters this week to the personal addresses of those affected.

However, the envelopes used meant the words ¡°redundancy process¡± could clearly be read through the window of the private letter, making its contents visible to others.

Francesco Belcastro, chair of Derby¡¯s University and College Union branch, said that over 40 staff members were left ¡°devastated¡± by the error.

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Belcastro, who is up for redundancy himself, called the incident a ¡°massive¡± data and GDPR breach.

He added that some of the letters had also been accidentally delivered to the wrong address, resulting in people¡¯s neighbours knowing they were up for redundancy.

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¡°People have had neighbours coming to them with the letter saying, ¡®I¡¯m really sorry that you¡¯re going through this,¡¯¡± he said.

¡°I have one colleague whose kid is eight years old who picked up the letter and they had to explain to them what it meant¡­They said to me: ¡®The only thing I could control is protecting my kids from the process. And now I have to explain to them why there was a letter with selected for redundancy written on it.¡¯¡±

He added: ¡°How is that a good way of managing this? It¡¯s horrible. This has been managed terribly.¡±

The redundancies had already caused ¡°a lot of anger¡± among staff, he said, but ¡°it¡¯s going to be hard to rebuild trust¡± after this.

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The union is currently balloting its members on whether to pursue strike action over the cuts, which will close on 11 November.?

A spokesperson for Derby said that while it has implemented changes to how it operates over the past two years to secure its financial position, ¡°the scale of the financial challenge means that these further measures now need to be considered¡±, adding that it hopes ¡°to achieve as much of this as possible by voluntary means¡±.

They continued: ¡°In the letters sent to the affected staff, it appears that, for some, the subject line was visible through the envelope window. We appreciate how concerning this was for those staff and have apologised to them for any distress caused. As soon as the issue was identified, we began a review of the mailing process and reported the situation to the ICO.¡±

They said that ¡°we fully recognise the impact that the proposals may have on our people¡± and that the university is ¡°committed to a fair and transparent process and consultation with affected staff is due to begin next week¡±.

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An ICO spokesperson said: ¡°We have received a report from the University of Derby, and we are assessing the information provided.¡±

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereductaion.com