Employee privacy notice

This notice applies to all employees of the University of Pretoria.

We have created this notice to help you understand how we collect, use, and protect your personal information.

We may need to update this notice periodically, but we will let you know when we do.

If you have any questions about this notice, please contact us at [email protected]

1. What personal information we collect and generate

We collect personal information that helps us communicate with you and integrate you as an employee.

We collect:

your contact information (e.g., name, home address, telephone number(s), fax numbers, email addresses, emergency contact information)
your nationality
your ethnic group
your gender
your background information (e.g., education, employment, criminal, and credit history)
date of birth
your identity document, passport, or work permit number
your driver’s licence
information relating to any disability you may have
medical information
photographs and other visual images of you (e.g., CCTV footage)
banking details
biometric information
work permit, visas and travel documentation

We generate personal information about you in the form of records.

We generate:

performance review records
disciplinary, grievance, and dismissal proceedings records
training records

2. When and why we collect and process your personal information

2.1. We process your personal information to conclude a contract with you and to meet our contractual obligations

We need your personal information to manage our employment relationship with you and to run the University.

We use your personal information:

When we use your financial details to pay your salary.
When we make statutory payments on your behalf, for instance, PAYE and UIF.
·When we track when you enter or leave our premises or facilities, or swipe your access card or scan your fingerprint.
When we investigate misconduct and conduct disciplinary proceedings.
When we review your performance.
When we communicate with you about University events, policies, meetings, and any other information relevant to your employment.
When you join our medical aid, pension scheme and provident fund – this is when we collect personal information of your dependents and nominees on behalf of the administrators.
When we assist with your or your dependents’ claims to the pension fund, medical aid and insurers (once your application has been made, their representatives are responsible for the personal information they use) – this is when we may process information about your marital status and dependents.
When you complete our medical questionnaire and undergo a medical examination at our request. If you indicate that you are disabled, we may ask for a supporting medical certificate.
When you are ill or injured, we may require a medical certificate.
When you use our communication services, we may intercept and monitor any real-time, stored, or archived communication, including private communications, that are or were generated using our telecommunications system or equipment or that occurred at our premises during working hours.
When you use our support services, we collect and use your information, for instance, the EAP services, Primary Health Care Clinic, wellness services and the library.
When your employment is terminated, we will record why it was terminated.
If your position is funded externally, as a condition of receiving funding, we are required to share your personal information with the relevant funder for annual reporting purposes.

2.2. We process your personal information because it is in your or our legitimate interest to do so, because we are legally required to do so, or because you have given us permission

We process your personal information because it is in your or our legitimate interest to do so.	We may process your personal information to protect your health and safety. For instance, we may share your personal information with the police and security services when there are protests on campus.
We process your personal information because we are legally required to do so.	When we produce reports and returns for funding agencies, government departments, and public bodies. When you take part in training, we keep a record of your participation. We use this information to update our Workspace Skills Plan and to submit Annual Training Reports. We may process your personal information to fulfil the requirements for a bank signatory. We may require your proof of address and a copy of your identity document in terms of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001. We may process your personal information to monitor your health, safety, and security. We need your medical information to comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993, the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, the Hazardous Substance Act 15 of 1973, and the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997 (including sectoral determinations). We may process your personal information to fulfil emolument attachment and garnishee orders against you.
We process your personal information with your consent.	·When you subscribe to our newsletters, you receive the newsletter by email. You can unsubscribe at any time by following the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email or by contacting us. When we verify your credit history, criminal record, education history, identity number, or driver’s licence. We use third-party service providers to verify your personal credentials. When you give us permission to use your information for research purposes. We may make payments on your behalf if you ask us to, for instance, for trade union membership fees, our provident fund, an employer administered savings scheme and our medical aid.

2.3. We process your personal information further

We process your personal information for historical, statistical or research purposes.

When we contact you to participate in institutional and research surveys and analyse the results of the research.
When we share employee salary information for salary benchmarking survey purposes.
When we use the personal information of our internal employees to conduct statistical analysis and research for recruitment and staff management purposes, e.g., to determine how the University can attract and retain the best professional talent.

3. In order to deliver our services to you, we must share your personal information with others we trust

We only use service providers we trust and who will keep your personal information secure, and we have contracts in place to ensure that they do – whether they are local or abroad.

We use service providers to help us:

communicate with you;
manage academic transcripts, events, career and other services;
monitor the effectiveness of our services;
manage administration related to our medical aid and pension and provident funds;
verify your credentials such as credit history, criminal record, education history, identity number, or driver’s licence;
with BBBEE analysis, verification and ratings services;
manage our business, for instance, accountants and professional advisors;
provide IT services; and
deliver teaching and learning services to you (e.g., our learner management system and online invigilation technology).
We only use suppliers and service providers we trust and who have agreed to keep your personal information secure and confidential, and to only use it for the purposes for which we shared it with them.
Some of the service providers that we use may be located in other countries. These countries may not have the same levels of protection of personal information as South Africa, in which case those service providers must undertake to protect the personal information of our employees to the same level that we do.
We provide for appropriate safeguards by means of contracts between us and our foreign service providers.
Sometimes the law requires that we share your personal information, for example, the Higher Education Act 101 of 1997.

4. We have taken reasonable steps to minimise the impact of a breach

We have reasonable security measures in place to protect your personal information.	Our security measures are in place to protect your personal information from being: lost misused accessed without authorisation altered destroyed
	We base our security measures on the sensitivity of the personal information that we hold.
We regularly monitor our systems for possible vulnerabilities and attacks.	No system is perfect, and we cannot guarantee that we will never experience a breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards, but we regularly monitor our systems for vulnerabilities.
We will let you know of any breaches that may affect your personal information.	If something should happen, we have taken steps to minimise the threat to your privacy, and we will let you know if your personal information has been compromised. We will also let you know how you can help minimise the impact of the breach.
You can help keep your information secure by being aware of how you communicate.	While our servers are protected, emails can still be intercepted. It is better not to share personal information with us in an email. Rather, give us a call or complete our online contact forms.

5. You have the right to know what we know about you, and what we do with your personal information

If you have any questions about your personal information, please email [email protected]

We may take one month to respond to your request and in certain circumstances we may refuse your request.

You may ask us about your personal information.	You have the right to know when we collect and use your personal information, and to ask us what we know about you and what we do with that information.
You may access your personal information.	You may ask to access your personal information by sending an email to [email protected]. We may take one month to respond to your request and may charge a fee in some circumstances. We will let you know if this is the case.
You have control over your personal information.	You may ask that we update incorrect personal information, or complete personal information that may be incomplete.
	You may ask that we delete your personal information.
	You may ask to receive your personal information in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.
	You may ask that we reuse your personal information for your own purposes across different services.
	Under certain circumstances you may object to the processing of your personal information.
	You may object to automated decision-making and profiling.
	You may ask that a human review any automated decisions we made about you, express your point of view about it and obtain an explanation of the decision. You may challenge any automated decision made about you.
	You may ask that we restrict our use of your personal information.
You have the right to unsubscribe.	You have the right to unsubscribe from any direct marketing we send you.

Published on 20 June 2022

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