HR consultancy Hand & Heart has lodged a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) against recruitment consultancy Wiser over the handling of supposedly anonymous personal data used in its review of BrewDog company culture.
Hand & Heart created a complaints platform on behalf of current and former staff at the Ellon-based brewing company.
It claims that following a subject access request into Wiser - which was hired by BrewDog in June 2021 to conduct a review following complaints made by former staff group Punks With Purpose - information was passed on to the brewer without permission.
Hand & Heart claims that the data involved in the review was collected under the pretence it would be anonymous - but that Wiser did not uphold this promise.
A complaint was sent to Wiser and the company has so far failed to respond to the platform's claims.
The Good Beer Hunting website reports that the individual involved in the complaint is Charlotte Cook, who said her name and details of conversations about her time at BrewDog were provided by Wiser to BrewDog without her knowledge or consent.
Cook worked at two BrewDog locations in Scotland between 2012 and 2014 and took part in the culture review.
In March, the platform claimed that a representative from BrewDog was obtaining third-party information about affected workers from the platform it set up to handle feedback and complaints.
The company revealed that it has paused work on the grievance handling website due to BrewDog representatives behind the scenes who "contradicted the good faith" programme.
Katie Bailey, founder at Hand and Heart, issued a statement on Hand & Heart's website: “I think I speak for all when I say how disappointing it is to be at this point.
“I hope for all [BrewDog chief executive James] Watt immediately stops abusing his platforms to assert these misrepresentations of certain individuals or at least respond on one of the many channels he has been asked to clarify elements of his claims and rather, put his vast resources towards meeting the request of the BrewDog Affect Workers platform and Punks with Purpose to find and amicable and just resolution.”
BrewDog declined to comment and Wiser has not yet responded to requests.
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