Here's how new SA laws will impact job interviews for South Africans
Finding a new job is not easy right now and it's going to get even more interesting with this change. Here's how the new SA laws will affect your job interviews.
André de Villiers is an attorney at Scheepers & Aucamp and a member of HR Economics. He spoke to BusinessTech, outlining how the recent change in the Protection of Personal Information (POPI) act will affect job interviews in South Africa.
The Act brings into question the two following questions, according to de Villiers.:
Are interviews seen as the processing of personal information of prospective employees or ‘data subjects’ as the Act refers to it?
Yes. This can be found in the definition of processing as stated in the Act, which includes a multitude of acts typically performed in interviews such as collection, receipt, recording, storage, transmission, destroying of information, etc.
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Is the data collected from prospective job seekers deserving of protection in terms of the Act?
In short - yes! Questions like age, sex, race, is considered personal information and therefore the POPI Act serves as protection for the interviewee.
Okay, but what does this all mean?
In practice, this means that the interviewer will need to obtain informed consent from the interviewee when accepting, collecting, processing potential job seekers’ personal information. “The hurdle to jump over is the concept of informed consent. That means that bodies will have to declare how they are to process the personal information obtained, and obtain consent to process it (in those terms) and no other.
What does this mean for Human Resource departments in SA?
HR specialists, recruiters, public and private bodies, and any party who could be seen to interfere with the new POPI Act are now faced with a heavy burden on their shoulders during interviews or job placement proceedings. Should they contravene the act in any way, this could could lead to lawsuits if they're deemed non-compliant. It could be as severe as a heft fine and even imprisonment.
Section 10 of the POPI Act states that employers are urged to obtain only strictly relevant information and will at all times remain accountable to the job seeker to explain how the data has been utilised.
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Generally, data collected should at all times be purpose-specific. It is advisable that access to records of interview proceedings should be severely limited only to the essential staff on completion of the interview proceedings and be retained solely for purposes of employment equity audits by the Department of Labour. So no more CVs lying around in the office or on a database, for an unforeseeable period, for everyone to see,
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