Bank violated law over vaccine related data
(CNS): In September 2021, CIBC FirstCaribbean Bank (Cayman) informed its staff that they would be required to prove they were vaccinated against COVID-19 and produce a weekly negative PCR test or go on unpaid leave. However, after two employees complained to the Office of the Ombudsman, the OMB conducted an investigation and found that the bank had breached some parts of the Data Protection Act (2021 Revision). The office found that the bank did not have a legal basis for collecting the data under the DPA or under the Labour Act, which was the legal basis it relied on.
The OMB also found that an email to staff who had not yet provided their data was sent without the use of the blind copy function, thereby risking inferences being made about their health and medical status, which also violated the DPA.
Since the processing of that personal data is no longer in practice and was not kept longer than needed, corrective action has not been required, the OMB said. However, an enforcement order from the office requires FirstCaribbean to show how it is meeting its obligations regarding the international transfer of personal data, as this was insufficiently explained.
In her written decision, Ombudsman Sharon Roulstone detailed her findings on where the bank did or did not breach the act. She said that the first email from the bank setting out the policy during the pandemic did meet the fairness requirements of the legislation, but it did not have a valid condition or legal basis for processing the data.
Roulstone said the purpose of the processing was explicitly specified and legitimate, but the processing, collecting, analyzing and storing of the employees’ data on their vaccination status and PCR testing was excessive as it was not necessary to meet the bank’s obligation under the Labour Act.
In the enforcement order, she said that FirstCaribbean must ensure that in future it meets all the requirements of the DPA when processing sensitive personal data and only processes personal data that is necessary. The bank must ensure that it does not reveal the private details of staff to others from which inferences can be made.
FirstCaribbean has not demonstrated how it is protecting personal data that is being transferred to jurisdictions that don’t have an adequate level of protection, including the Bahamas, the ombudsman said. Therefore, she has given the company 45 days to explain what it is doing to address that issue and show what safeguards are in place.
See the full enforcement order below:
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Category: Banking & money, Business, Politics, Private Sector Oversight
RCIPS did the same thing as well. OCP is meant to uphold the law not break it. Employees were forced to sign contracts agreeing to lateral flow tests twice weekly and those who were infected with COVID and not vaccinated would only have their 10 day sick leave. Kind of messed up considering many caught COVID during working hours as first responders.
Flow did the same thing. Told staff once they exhausted their sick leave, they would not be paid.
We have no one in Cayman to look out for the consumer. I dont know how cima can let them charge all those fees. Our elected representatives are useless and we just sit down and take it. In any other Country in the world people would be in the streets. Look at what is going on right now in France and Israel. If you lay down you get walked on.
That’s it? What about the people affected by the bank’s decision? Always protecting who don’t need it.
A complaint should be made on all of them to the Ombudsman
If ombudsman did more digging, they’d find a sleuth of other financial and other services firms that performed the same actions. Including shaming of staff in public forums and so on to bully staff into taking the vaccine. Some im sure broke labor and other laws and should face tribunals. First caribbean is bad yes, but there are other entities that played the same bad card.
can’t wait to see all the violations on personal data when the Digital ID register comes online in June.
I’m sure none of the private entities (including banks) that will be fully permitted to require it (per the Bill voted on and passed – yet not read by the majority of our MPs) – will breach any data protection laws….CHOKE…
Wait. How could they happen in the perfect private sector.
This bank has single-handedly become the worse bank in Cayman to do business with. My spouse works there and even with staff privileges we moved everything to the Credit Union. Maybe the next investigation should be by CIMA to see if all the expats are qualified to carry the high paying positions that they have. CIMA, your turn.
yeah yeah, expats to blame for everything again. When are you going to start taking responsibility for your own failings instead of blaming everyone else for their success?
Expats built Cayman. The truth may hurt, but it’s still the truth. See Freyer, Tony, and Andrew P. Morriss. “Creating Cayman as an offshore financial center: structure & strategy since 1960.” Ariz. St. LJ 45 (2013): 1297. https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/23.
Businesses WILL hire Caymanians who are suitably qualified and experienced, because they don’t need to pay for work permits. If a Caymanian is applying for a job and is not being hired, they lack the qualifications and/or experience. Businesses aren’t charities, they won’t pay work permit fees if they don’t have to. It may feel cathartic to contrive conspiracy theories, but it’s both nonesensical and counterproductive. The equivalent of the obsessive navel-gaving about Caymanian affirmative action is the Black Economic Empowerment legislation in South Africa. As with all attempts to impose racial preferences/unmeritocratic tribalism, it has been a failure: https://theconversation.com/only-south-africas-elite-benefits-from-black-economic-empowerment-and-covid-19-proved-it-189596.
If people want better jobs, they must perform better. That starts early. See “Almost 60% of Year 11 students miss 2021 exam targets, 19/04/2022, …according to the Data Report for the Academic Year 2020-21, just 40.3% of Year 11 students achieved the national standard target of five or more Level 2 subjects including English and maths.” https://caymannewsservice.com/2022/04/almost-60-of-year-11-students-miss-2021-exam-targets
Businesses are not welfare schemes for the unemployable (that’s the World Class Civil Service™).
In Cayman, the private sector is meritocratic and successful, the political system is race-based and self-evidently a failure. If you want successful politics, allow people to vote and stand for election based on merit not skin color.
How horrible. Just one example of how CIBC FirstCaribbean victimized its staff. We often complain about poor customer service at these banks but don’t realize the stress that their frontline staff endure – FirstCaribbean is ALWAYS understaffed.
18 months to investigate a complaint…? This would have been so much more helpful if it was finalized and the Ombudsman had made a declaration when a lot of companies had similar requirements. CIBC is now the only one with the reputational damage, but a lot of other companies were doing the exact same thing. How does this help the people who were victims of this?
I am a civil servant and worked in a Ministry at the time. I was asked outright by the HR Manager if I was vaccinated. I had to prove that I was negative every Monday.
well report it to them if its not too late
Can they be sued?
For what? Doing the right thing to protect the welfare of their staff, consistent with the best available medical guidance at the time?
Could the Ombudsman’s Office dedicate more effort to dealing with some of the more critical problems affecting Cayman. Education? Corruption? Maladministration?
Read the report in the file attached to the article. It is a good ruling.
No it is not. It is a consequence of inappropriate legislation, and bureaucratic overreach. Asking staff to be vaccinated or to test before coming to work, where your motivation is to protect their colleagues, is not a mistake worthy of formal public admonishment. Especially when the Chief Medical Officer is telling everyone that vaccination stops infection and transmission.
Parts of the ruling are good, but the Ombudsman (likely unintentionally) appears to be utilizing a position of knowledge that was not so clear cut in Q3 2021 to scrutinize aspects of this matter.
I applaud those instances in which equity and fairness principles are upheld – for example, testing all employees would have been better than only testing unvaccinated. But I query that the Ombudsman has the requisite capability to determine the relativistic efficacy of various health interventions when scrutinizing “necessary”. I am even more dubious that the Ombudsman would have held that confidence of position in 2021, or if more current knowledge is being applied to justify the position put forward.
I suspect that the ruling would have been similar on a number of points, but the delay in reaching it gave the Ombudsman cover (and avoided having to make a material ruling during a relevant period of time). Not sure if that is due to lack of competency to return a review in a timely manner, or a lack of conviction to do so when it actually mattered…
LOL…”utilizing a position of knowledge that was not so clear cut in Q3 2021 to scrutinize aspects of this matter.”
in other words, following the political ‘science’ being pushed by MSM and the medical advice bought and paid for by Big Pharma. Sorry but some of us had the capacity to read alternative, peer reviewed medical journals, studies and data despite being chastised and ridiculed for it.
These “Banks” shouldn’t even be able to call themselves banks. They are so poor in customer service and their banking system is so poor, it’s embarrassing.
And FirstCaribbean is the creme de la creme of poor customer service. Would be better off putting your money is National Bank of Booby Cay.
Key is in the name sweetheart. “Caribbean”. What do you expect?
Nothing we do in the Caribbean is first world and the reason is because it’s all bloody adopted from 3rd world North America. Everything from healthcare L, chip and pin, online banking, etc.
The EU is what we should look towards, or AUNZ. Never the US. And sure as shit not the Canadians.
Completely different world when you walk into a RBC, Scotiabank or CIBC in Canada which provide excellent customer service. These banks in Cayman should not have the Canadian names as their customer service and competence is the polar opposite. In Cayman they should be renamed BS Bank with their brutal service, incompetence and slow as a turtle line ups … oh And let’s not forget about the almost $10 per month fee on bank accounts. Bonkers!
My UK Bank has always been free and I’ve not had to visit a branch for more than 2 decades because EVERYTHING is simple and can be done online, including secure messages with 24-hour response turnaround from the bank. If only we could have that here.
4.36 I bet your UK bank doesn’t have to jump through all the hoops that banks in Cayman do.
Especially Scotiabank!
For real been trying to open a business account for months and they never respond. Calling them up no answer, visit branch to be told they’ll be in touch and they don’t. In the meantime milking us for fees. A simple $10 ATM transaction costs $2.50 and then you get double-whammied by your own bank in transaction fees. Like politicians they’re greedy, useless, and taking advantage of us so they can feed at the trough.
Outrageous!!! It behooves me to say that all employees in this beautiful island should provide confirmation that they are vaxed and waxed before coming into the office.
Did it prevent getting Covid? No! Did it prevent the spread? No! Go behoove elsewhere!
Truth! It’s absurd that we are still requiring Covid vaccinations for work permits too. Move on, Cayman Islands!
Erroneous! At the very least all should be waxed.
I applaud these brave employees who took a stand … there are so many more institutions who victimized their staff amid threats of losing their jobs and hard earned bonuses forcing them to take the ineffective clot shot! A disgrace!
You Behooved again..?
All of our local banking choices suck. For the much-touted “fifth biggest banking center on Earth”, our medieval options cant even muster the normal selection of banking products and services offered at a third-tier savings and loan onshore, or other Caribbean jurisdictions. If only our tax foes knew how bad it actually was here, they might leave us alone out of sympathy.
America and UK are worse! Trust me!
Negative, ghost rider
U.K. service is great & fees nominal. Here we pay $25 a month for savings in an account with no activity!! Then if you want to take USD out of a USD account there’s a % charged (I queried this at Butterfield but didn’t get an answer that made sense). 8% interest charged on mortgages but less than 2% paid on savings. So you are making 6+% spread and that’s not enough?!!
I would like CIMA to respond on the 8% fee charged by Butterfield for withdrawing USD from your USD account. This is currency controls and should be under CIMA’s regulatory purview.
I was told they started imposing the fee because there were no tourists coming to Cayman, hence no usd .. I seen to remember being told it was 1.5% of the sum you want to convert!!!
KYC norms, like a published “Client Acceptance Policy”, do not exist in the Cayman Islands. Here, a licensed class A bank are free to doodle on a legitimate client intake application for over 9 months, and then decline it for no reason other than professional embarrassment. Someone that maybe looks like you, cut off the wrong gatekeeper in traffic? Foreigner? No mortgage for you, Sir!