Have you ever wondered why you might not be getting hired? An Alberta, Canada woman recently learned why she wasn’t being hired. She was shocked to learn that her former employer had sold her personal information, along with some personal comments and opinions about the driver, to a database called Professional Drivers Bureau of Canada Inc.
The database collects information about drivers and compiles that information into a database. Prospective employers pay $29.75 to access a prospective employee’s file. The company also credits carriers $5.50 for each employee it provides information about.
The Bureau’s founder, Neil Melgaard, says he founded the business because he was tired of hiring drivers and later finding out they had falsified their applications.
The Professional Drivers Bureau of Canada Inc. collects a driver’s name, birth date, driver’s license number, equipment the driver has driven, routes they’ve driven, performance, traffic tickets, accidents, reason for termination of employment and the results of drug and alcohol screenings. The Bureau also allows employers to list personal comments, opinions and incidents or altercations that have occurred.
According to the Calgary Herald, the Canadian woman learned that five prospective employers requested her records. The woman’s record contained information from approximately 20 former employers and included comments about the woman’s disputes with dispatchers and managers and even listed an alleged incident in which the woman was said to have ran a family’s car off the road, because she feared the car was following her.
The Teamsters Union is calling on Alberta’s Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner to investigate the reporting bureau. The bureau contains files on 160,000 drivers. Teamsters questions whether or not the drivers gave their permission to have their information shared.
If the drivers do not have knowledge of, or did not consent to having their information shared, the employer who shared the driver’s information and the bureau may be in violation of the 2004 Alberta Personal Information Protection Act, which states that employers may not share an employee’s information without the consent of the employee.
The Professional Drivers Bureau was recently ordered to expunge the woman’s record from its database.
“She was Canada’s worst truck driver,” Melaard told the Calgary Herald. “She created this problem herself, but she’s mad at me because I made it difficult for her to lie on her job applications.”
Richard Eichel, principal officer with Teamsters Local 362, said his concern is that there is nothing preventing scorned bosses or employers from reporting false information and incidents to the Bureau.
“We’re still in a free world,” he said. “If an employer doesn’t like someone, he has the right to say he wouldn’t rehire him and why.”
Diane McLeod-McKay, the director responsible for enforcing the Personal Information Act, wants drivers to know that they have the right to request the removal of their information from the database and they have the right to withdraw consent for the use of their personal information.
To read more about this, follow this link to the Calgary Herald.