I'm a factory worker. A client is a financial institution. They recently requested a number of staff including myself take a CRB check which I agreed to. Now they are asking for a credit check. Why would this be? I'm a plain old button pusher, totally removed from finance. I'm thinking my personal credit record is none of their business. Any thoughts?
Seems weird to me.
american owned company or american bosses?
Have they given you a choice in the matter?
Client is a multinational. My employer is UK standard SME.
I've asked HR to explain. Imagine I can refuse. Will find out tomorrow I imagine.
Nothing to add of any use, but I was hoping the request was something more along the lines of a boudoir photo shoot or you to hug all colleagues every Monday Wednesday and Friday....
(It's been a long day)
From your description that seems a bid odd.
I'm a factory worker but what we makes means I've had security checks but not credit. Could they be concerned about the risk of blackmail? Doesn't make sense if your client is a financial institution though. Unless you work for CCL or somewhere else making polymer banknotes or something?
Do you make payment cards or something similar?
Client is a multinational. My employer is UK standard SME.
This isn't a huge surprise
Small company wins a contract from big company
Big company imposes their T&C's on small company
Said T&C's have loads of stupid clauses in it
I deal with this nonsense regularly
I'd put the wind up them, ask if the additional clearance checks they're doing means you're being considered for promotion.
What do you make in your factory that a financial inst buys? I've heard and seen this increasingly in areas where articles may be subject to certain security restrictions, dual use control, etc.
Compare a factory making paperclips vs one making IT equipment, in the latter case not totally unreasonable to make sure the people aren't exposed and at risk of taking a bribe. If you then want to get really spy novel about it, what's to stop someone working in a 'paperclip' factory being bribed to put a listening device in something?
I'd want some pretty convincing reason why they want access to your very private information before even considering agreeing.
We are printers, so potentially there could be sensitive information go through. So I had no problem doing the CRB check for them. Just not really sure how the state of my finances was relevant. If they were worried about how skint the people were printing their jobs they'd probably struggle to find anyone in the UK!
So that's maybe not dissimilar to understanding if someone is a risk by being exposed by debt, etc. I believe police, prison officers, etc have to do similar
So that's maybe not dissimilar to understanding if someone is a risk by being exposed by debt, etc. I believe police, prison officers, etc have to do similar
I'm sure you're right. Being poorly paid obviously makes me a prime candidate for villainous behaviour. Wish I'd thought of it twenty years ago.
We are printers, so potentially there could be sensitive information go through.
Yeah I can see why they would be concerned about that depending on what is being printed. I have had some checks requested since I had access to personal data and hence could be a risk.
I wouldnt be overly fussed although the one thing I would ask for a guarantee on is that whatever checks they do doesnt count against your credit score.
I think you're being sarcastic and I'm not meaning to cast any aspersions or cause any offence, but sadly it is a reality - both that when desperate, people can be forced to do desperate things, and that these far fetched ideas aren't that far fetched.
I can certainly see that if someone had access to sensitive printed info, and they were known to be exposed in some way - not necessarily debt, but eg drugs, scandal, whatever - that could very easily make them a target.
So to me, not an outrageous request.
I used to work for a printing firm and we had to go through the CRB checks, etc as we also printed statements for a well-known high street bank. Didn't need to do a credit check, though - that does seem rather odd.
Yes of course, hence why I had no problem with the CRB check in the first place.
Id be very keen to get firm commitment that the result of any credit check is confidential to HR.
I’m also interested what the client will do with any anonymised results. What happens if they think someone’s score isn’t good enough, do they end the contract, ask for the employee to be removed from the contract work or dismissed? Your company needs to know the answer to this as it could directly impact your employment.
Thank you Frank, that's a very well put opinion and I'll certainly be asking those questions tomorrow.
I agree, entirely reasonable things to ask.
We're having to do more and more of this sort of thing at work but the communications around it has been exemplary. If your work are just asking you to do credit checks with no explanations, you have every right to be asking why and how it will be used. There are actually third party companies for this sort of thing - they do the checking and so your company doesn't get any detail, just that you have passed checking.
"There are actually third party companies for this sort of thing - they do the checking and so your company doesn't get any detail, just that you have passed checking."
What happens if you fail checking?
I think my response might be along the lines of, "you pay me half of **** all and then want to delve in to my private life to prove I'm living pay cheque to pay cheque? Level up and back date the cost of living increase I've not seen for X years and I'll think about it."
The crb check yes. Credit check? I would need to understand why its needed. Apart from anything else if it becomes compulsory its a change to your terms and conditions which needs negotiation and various other things to make it happen legally
What does your union say?
What happens if you fail checking?
Then a conversation with the employee. It may mean there are certain types of projects they can't participate in - for example not totally unusual in security related work for some projects to require UK Nationals only. Very unlikely that it would remove all projects as an option, but also not impossible that if restricted to only those projects they might find career options limited, and hence make decisions to move elsewhere.
It's a really tricky area.
What does your union say?
again IME, which is different to the OP, but the union is very engaged in the process - to protect rights of the employees but also pragmatic about the necessity in this fast changing world. For sure ask them, but I'd be surprised if they reject out of principle.
Typically that kind of role would mean you are handling big money and/or have access to highly sensitive data.
In that case you'd want an employee with full SC clearence.
A 'credit check', to me just seems pointless - tell them to look you up on Experian or whatever if they care that much.
And speak to your union, it sounds 'kinda sus' to me.
SC would be needed for access to Secret or Top Secret info for sure, but that is in the context of national security. I don't think it has relevance (as a security clearance level) for commercial secrets, but I wouldn't be surprised to see similar checking levels for access to commercial secrets. There are levels well above SC as well.
Whatiffery but working for a financial services firm and being asked to print documents that contain future investment strategy stuff isn't national security, but could be valuable info to a competitor and therefore worth ensuring that the people printing it aren't compromised. Heck, I suspect even the Colonel's Secret Recipe isn't readily available to workers without controls over their background.
Is it a soft or hard search? Soft search is fairly innocuous and is done every time you get insurance quotes for example and is just an identity check basically. Crucially though it won’t impact your credit score. A hard search WILL impact your credit score and I’d be refusing that. It will be worth your while checking your own (free) credit report with Credit Expert or similar so you know if they are doing the search or not…
There are actually third party companies for this sort of thing - they do the checking and so your company doesn't get any detail, just that you have passed checking.
I have had the misfortune to having had a check from one of these "companies", I am pretty sure they are more criminal than most organized crime lords.
Easy to throw an allegation like that with no basis - do go on?
The crb check yes. Credit check? I would need to understand why it’s needed.
credit check is not an unusual requirement for people working with confidential financial information.
perhaps but if this is the only or a major piece of the work at that site, the consequences of being the employee who won’t comply are not difficult to foresee.Apart from anything else if it becomes compulsory its a change to your terms and conditions which needs negotiation and various other things to make it happen legally
unions have significantly less clout in most private sector organisations than they did in your world, if they exist at all.What does your union say?
unions have significantly less clout in most private sector organisations than they did in your world, if they exist at all.
Not true. they only have less clout if not enough folk join them My comment was a bit of a joke anyway
perhaps but if this is the only or a major piece of the work at that site, the consequences of being the employee who won’t comply are not difficult to foresee.
Unfair dismissal? 🙂
What does your union say?
again IME, which is different to the OP, but the union is very engaged in the process - to protect rights of the employees but also pragmatic about the necessity in this fast changing world. For sure ask them, but I'd be surprised if they reject out of principle.
Which is why I asked the question - a union is best placed to answer this
Edit - it could be completely reasonable or it could be a daft over zealous request from someone who does not understand the implications. I've seen employers ask for absurd unnecessary things before thinking they were just being thorough but in fact not understanding the implications
I think my answer would be "justify why you need this information or **** off."
I've seen employers ask for absurd unnecessary things
A former employer asked for passport details. I wasn't working overseas so I told them to get knotted. Turned out what they actually wanted was proof of ID. Well... why not ask for that instead then? They already had my driving licence info because I had a company car.
We are printers, so potentially there could be sensitive information go through.
What is the nature of the printing that your company is involved with? That might have some bearing on the situation.
A former employer asked for passport details. I wasn't working overseas so I told them to get knotted. Turned out what they actually wanted was proof of ID. Well... why not ask for that instead then?
I've had that before for proof of right to work in the UK. Which I'd have thought an NI number would have been adequate for.
I've often wondered if it'd be reasonable to expense a passport application/renewal.
I've had that before for proof of right to work in the UK. Which I'd have thought an NI number would have been adequate for.
I think that was exactly why they were asking, yes, but it was to verify that I was who I said I was. I could be wrong though, it was years ago.
Client is a multinational. My employer is UK standard SME.
This isn't a huge surprise
Small company wins a contract from big company
Big company imposes their T&C's on small company
Said T&C's have loads of stupid clauses in it
I deal with this nonsense regularly
I’m with this as the explanation, may seem like overkill to you but there’s probably a clause that states all employees working on related work must have a check, the reason being that a criminal past and/or poor financial situation makes you a higher risk to commit a crime whilst at work which could involve the client.
Checks will be done by a 3rd party which specialises in this and results will be filed on your HR record, they shouldn’t be required to share personal results with the client, just confirm the checks have been made and passed.
Love the automatic assumption that money equals integrity.
I wonder if there's more high earning being dishonest with company resources than low earners?
I always laugh at the keyboard warrior like suggested responses to this type of question, when I'll bet you are far more reasonable IRL.
Rather than tell them it's none of their business and go **** themselves, a simple 'can I ask why you need it when you haven't in the previous X years I've worked here, and also what effect it will have on my record and how you will treat that info once provided?' might just be a better option. And then depending on the answers, decide if you want to agree or go all Falling Down on their sorry asses.
Do let us know how it pans out.
Whatever the rights or wrongs of the request, the communications around the request has been badly handled by OP's employer and customer both.
Love the automatic assumption that money equals integrity
That's not the assumption, the assumption is that someone with debts may be more at risk of being bribed. If you didn't require all employees* to do the checking then that would be discriminatory. A high earner with a big mortgage and lots of debt on PCP etc could be just at risk.
* all the employees with access to the confidential info, not unusual for large companies to have different areas with different security clearance levels including as I said above, some that are truly UK Nationals only
It's a lot easier to be in debt, and a lot more common as a low earner though.
Unfortunately it's considered the norm these days.
