Morrisons to be sued by 2,000 employees after data breach
Morrisons is to be sued by 2,000 of its employees in relation to a breach of data security.
It follows the posting on the internet of the bank, salary and National Insurance details of almost 100,000 members of staff by a disgruntled former colleague.
Andrew Skelton, who worked as a senior internal auditor at Morrisons’ Bradford head office, was jailed for eight years in July following a trial at Bradford Crown Court which heard that he sent the information to newspapers and placed it on data sharing websites.
More than 2,000 of his ex-colleagues are now to pursue a group claim against the supermarket following a hearing at the High Court in London.
Nick McAleenan, a data privacy lawyer at JMW Solicitors, said there will be a four month period in which other Morrisons employees who were affected could join the group action.
He added: “Whenever employers are given personal details of their staff, they have a duty to look after them. That is especially important given that most companies now gather and manage such material digitally and, as a result, it can be accessed and distributed relatively easily if the information is not protected.”
Skelton’s trial was told that he took Morrisons’ payroll information and then leaked the details of 99,998 employees after being disciplined for a previous incident in which he was accused of using the company’s mailroom to ship parcels to his private eBay customers.
