Privacy policy statement

Job applicant privacy notice (compliant with the GDPR)

The Company is aware of its obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and current data protection legislation, and is committed to processing your data securely and transparently. This privacy notice sets out, in line data protection obligations, the types of data that we collect and hold on you as a job applicant. It also sets out how we use that information, how long we keep it for and other relevant information about your data.

Data controller details

The Company is a data controller, meaning that it determines the processes to be used when using your personal data. Our contact details are as follows: [insert name and contact details of Company]

Data protection principles

In relation to your personal data, we will:
  • process it fairly, lawfully and in a clear, transparent way
  • collect your data only for reasons that we find proper for the course of your employment in ways that have been explained to you
  • only use it in the way that we have told you about
  • ensure it is correct and up to date
  • keep your data for only as long as we need it
  • process it in a way that ensures it will not be used for anything that you are not aware of or have consented to (as appropriate), lost or destroyed.
Types of Data we process

The organisation collects a range of information about you. This includes:

  • your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number;
  • details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history;
  • information about your current level of remuneration, including benefit entitlements;
  • whether or not you have a disability for which the organisation needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process;
  • information about your entitlement to work in the UK; and
  • equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about your ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health, and religion or belief.
How we collect your data

We collect data about you in a variety of ways including the information you would normally include in a CV or a job application cover letter, or notes made by our recruiting officers during a recruitment interview. Further information will be collected directly from you when you complete forms at the start of your employment, for example, your bank and next of kin details. Other details may be collected directly from you in the form of official documentation such as your driving licence, passport or other right to work evidence.

In some cases, we will collect data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers, information from employment background check providers and information from criminal records checks. The organisation will seek information from third parties only once a job offer to you has been made and will inform you that it is doing so.

Data will be stored in a range of different places, including on your application record, in HR management systems and on other IT systems (including email).

Why does the organisation process personal data?

The organisation needs to process data to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you. It also needs to process your data to enter into a contract with you.

The law on data protection allows us to process your data for certain reasons only:

  • in order to perform the employment contract that we are party to
  • in order to carry out legally required duties
  • in order for us to carry out our legitimate interests
  • to protect your interests and
  • where something is done in the public interest.
All of the processing carried out by us falls into one of the permitted reasons. Generally, we will rely on the first three reasons set out above to process your data.

We need to collect your data to ensure we are complying with legal requirements such as:

  • carrying out checks in relation to your right to work in the UK and
  • making reasonable adjustments for disabled employees.

We also collect data so that we can carry out activities which are in the legitimate interests of the Company. We have set these out below:

  • making decisions about who to offer employment to
  • making decisions about salary and other benefits
  • assessing training needs
  • dealing with legal claims made against us
The organisation has a legitimate interest in processing personal data during the recruitment process and for keeping records of the process. Processing data from job applicants allows the organisation to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm a candidate's suitability for employment and decide to whom to offer a job. The organisation may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.

Where the organisation relies on legitimate interests as a reason for processing data, it has considered whether or not those interests are overridden by the rights and freedoms of employees or workers and has concluded that they are not.

The organisation processes health information if it needs to make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process for candidates who have a disability. This is to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

Where the organisation processes other special categories of data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health or religion or belief, this is for equal opportunities monitoring purposes.

For some roles, the organisation is obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences. Where the organisation seeks this information, it does so because it is necessary for it to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

The organisation will not use your data for any purpose other than the recruitment exercise for which you have applied.

If you are unsuccessful in obtaining employment, your data will not be used for any reason other than in the ways explaining in relation to the specific application you have made. During the recruitment process you will be asked if you consent to your data being retained in the event that other suitable roles may become available for which the company thinks you may wish to apply. You are free to withhold your consent to this and there will be no consequences for withholding consent.

Who has access to data?

Your information will be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes members of the HR and recruitment team, interviewers involved in the recruitment process, managers in the business area with a vacancy and IT staff if access to the data is necessary for the performance of their roles.

The organisation will not share your data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and it makes you an offer of employment. The organisation will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you, employment background check providers to obtain necessary background checks and the on some occasions the Disclosure and Barring Service to obtain necessary criminal records checks.

Your data may be transferred outside the European Economic Area (EEA) to our Head Office in Bussnang, Swizterland.

Protecting your data

The organisation takes the security of your data seriously. It has internal policies and controls in place to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by our employees in the proper performance of their duties.

How long we keep your data for

In line with data protection principles, we only keep your data for as long as we need it for and this will depend on whether or not you are successful in obtaining employment with us.

If your application is not successful and we have not sought consent or you have not provided consent upon our request to keep your data for the purpose of future suitable job vacancies, we will keep your data for 6 months once the recruitment exercise ends.

If we have sought your consent to keep your data on file for future job vacancies, and you have provided consent, we will keep your data for 6 months once the recruitment exercise ends. At the end of this period, we will delete or destroy your data, unless you have already withdraw your consent to our processing of your data in which case it will be deleted or destroyed upon your withdrawal of consent.

Your rights

As a data subject, you have a number of rights. These are:


  • the right to be informed. This means that we must tell you how we use your data, and this is the purpose of this privacy notice
  • the right of access. You have the right to access the data that we hold on you. To do so, you should make a subject access request
  • the right for any inaccuracies to be corrected. If any data that we hold about you is incomplete or inaccurate, you are able to require us to correct it
  • the right to have information deleted. If you would like us to stop processing your data, you have the right to ask us to delete it from our systems where you believe there is no reason for us to continue processing it
  • the right to restrict the processing of the data. For example, if you believe the data we hold is incorrect, we will stop processing the data (whilst still holding it) until we have ensured that the data is correct
  • the right to portability. You may transfer the data that we hold on you for your own purposes
  • the right to object to the inclusion of any information. You have the right to object to the way we use your data where we are using it for our legitimate interests
  • the right to regulate any automated decision-making and profiling of personal data. You have a right not to be subject to automated decision making in way that adversely affects your legal rights.


Where you have provided consent to our use of your data, you also have the unrestricted right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent means that we will stop processing the data that you had previously given us consent to use. There will be no consequences for withdrawing your consent. However, in some cases, we may continue to use the data where so permitted by having a legitimate reason for doing so.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights explained above, please contact the Human Resources Department on SRSUK_HRQueries@stadlerrail.com. You can make a subject access request by completing the organisation's form for making a subject access request.

If you believe that the organisation has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner.

What if you do not provide personal data?

You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to the organisation during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, the organisation may not be able to process your application properly or at all.

You are under no obligation to provide information for equal opportunities monitoring purposes and there are no consequences for your application if you choose not to provide such information.

Automated decision-making

Recruitment processes are not based solely on automated decision-making.

Making a complaint

The supervisory authority in the UK for data protection matters is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). If you think your data protection rights have been breached in any way by us, you are able to make a complaint to the ICO.

Data Protection Officer

The Company’s Data Protection Officer is Fay Ball, UK Head of Human Resources who can be contacted on Fay.Ball@stadlerrail.com.