"Employment" screening

[PorkPie]

MyCo's client, a multinational IB has just outsourced it's HR credit check/reference check to a company based in Poland.

As part of the screening, they first get you to sign a consent form, worded such as: "Your employment with IB (herein after referred to as "the company" ) is subject to the satisfactory completion of an employment screening process... etc etc"

It goes on to say that you give consent for any personal information divulged to be transferred out of your home country (as well as outside of the European Union), and that "I further understand that Personal Data pertaining to me may be transferred to countries which may not have the equivalent data protection standards to which I or my personal information are subject" etc etc.

So as you can guess I have some major reservations about this.

1) I am not employed by IB, have never been, and do not want to be considered as such, and have been careful to ensure that my contract and business arrangements could not be construed as such; and
2) I am concerned that when I've had all of my personal data transferred to grozny, that it will be sold on to some east european mob, who start cloning my identity.

I also think I'm screwed and have no choice; either lump it or walk. Wonder if it's more than just the IB I'm doing business with.

I've been speaking to another contractor on site (who's mid contract and now having to concede to these checks) and he's been asked to provide proof of his o-levels, which he sat over 30 years ago. This is not reasonable, and quite frankly makes me feel like I'm living in stalinist Russia.

Anyone else had to do this? Anyone taken umbrage with it? Anyone refused to do it?

Is this really the price of doing business in the UK?

[northernladuk]

This was discussed in great detail just this week. look down the forums for the thread. anyone that has access to financial systems has to be screened. You could refuse and walk. The fact it has the term employed just means they haven't bothered expanding it to include sub contractors. Forget the word, it means nothing but the principle of everyone being screened does.

[northernladuk]

Here you go

http://forums.contractoruk.com/accou...18-months.html

[TheFaQQer]

You probably won't get away with it at an IB, but here's what I did when an agency asked me for the verification etc:

I got the company secretary to write a letter on company headed paper which said

To whom it may concern,

FaqCorp Ltd warrants that TF is an employee of the company, and is qualified to carry out the works for this contract. Further, the company warrants that all experience, qualifications and references for TF have been checked by the company and found to be correct.

Yours faithfully,

MrsF
Director and Company Secretary

It was good enough for them, but I doubt it would be acceptable to an IB. Essentially, if there were any lies on the CV that had gone to the agency and the client, then MyCo would be liable as the company was legally confirming that I was qualified for the work and the CV wasn't made up.

The checks that MrsF did were probably more in-depth than anything you will be asked

[JoJoGabor]

It's interesting this one, when I have contracted directly to financial firms, I have always had to go througgh screening, but I worked for an IB via a consultancy last year and didn't need to do anything. That would suggest that if you are seen as providing services through your company, and sign an NDA probably with some other paperwork, there may be a way in there.

[northernladuk]

It's interesting this one, when I have contracted directly to financial firms, I have always had to go througgh screening, but I worked for an IB via a consultancy last year and didn't need to do anything. That would suggest that if you are seen as providing services through your company, and sign an NDA probably with some other paperwork, there may be a way in there.

I cannot believe for one minute that signing an NDA will satisfy the banks risk team that you are trustworthy enough to access financial systems and your credit history is in order.

[JoJoGabor]

No not an NDA alone, which is why I said plus some other paperwork. I don't know what agreement they made for this one offpiece of work, but the structure should be no different than a one man band consultancy going in.

[VirtualMonkey]

similar situation at a recent client...
contractors and perm staff were vetted (although not to the level of qualifications like that).
staff from certain 3rd parties like IBM were not because they had a special agreement and were big enough to get sued if it all went wrong

[nomadd]

You probably won't get away with it at an IB, but here's what I did when an agency asked me for the verification etc:

I got the company secretary to write a letter on company headed paper which said

I always do something similar.

I put down "self employed" on the screening form, that saves me have to list every client, break, etc. for the last 5 years.

I then simply say I've been employed by the same company for 23 years and my accountant can verify that. I then give my accountants details.

This has worked just fine in my last 4 roles, all Banking (2 retail, 2 IB.)

[TestMangler]

I always do something similar.

I put down "self employed" on the screening form, that saves me have to list every client, break, etc. for the last 5 years.

I then simply say I've been employed by the same company for 23 years and my accountant can verify that. I then give my accountants details.

This has worked just fine in my last 4 roles, all Banking (2 retail, 2 IB.)

WNS.

I've worked in banking and insurance for years and although checks to this level are relatively recent, I've only ever pointed the screening companys at my accountant to verify my 18 years employment with MyCo. If that's not enough, then **** em.