Our Privacy Policy
Action Hub UK takes the security of your personal information seriously, and puts stringent security measures in place to make sure your information is safe.
Action Hb UK is maintained by GMB Trade Union, a democratic organisation run by GMB members for GMB members, transparency is important to us.
This privacy statement explains how we process information about you. If you have any questions, please email GMB’s Data Protection Officer on bob.robinson@gmb.org.uk or write to us at GMB Union, Mary Turner House, 22 Stephenson Way, London, NW1 2HD.
What we use your information for
When you sign a petition on Action Hub UK, you consent to us using your information for GMB business. You can see GMB’s aims objectives and rules in our rule book.
GMB business includes providing you with membership services, membership benefits, informing you about campaigns and the work we are doing on your behalf and in order to represent you.
We will use the information you provide when you join GMB or update your details with us to contact you (see section 2 below), to maintain accurate records, to assist with employment disputes and injury claims and to conduct ballots and internal elections. This may mean, where necessary, sharing your claim details with GMB’s own legal firm Unionline or other legal firms we use to support GMB members – this will always be done in a confidential manner.
It is important to understand who GMB members are. Providing equality monitoring information is not mandatory for members, but where that information is freely given we will use the information you provide us to give statistical information about the make-up of GMB, which may include such information as gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, disability and migrant worker status and to contact you on relevant issues or union activity.
On occasion, we may also use your information to conduct research about GMB members’ views, for example, contacting you to find out your views on a topical issue or on your satisfaction with GMB.
Where you sign up to attend GMB training, we will also keep a record of that to help track your learning and progress, and to communicate about courses you might be interested in.
Information you provide will be kept throughout your membership of GMB (it’s a legal requirement for us to keep our records up to date) and for a reasonable period after membership as may be needed to enable you to access any post-membership benefits. We also have to keep some records after you have left GMB in order to comply with the law.
Contact from GMB
GMB union uses information provided by you to carry out our role as your trade union. That may include contacting you by post, email, SMS, phone call or on social media. As a trade union we are legally obliged to contact you on certain matters. We will contact you to provide ‘membership services’. ‘Membership services’ include information related to GMB campaigns, member benefits, industrial action ballots, GMB internal elections and whether or not the union should run a political fund as well as any other issues relevant to your GMB membership and classified as membership services.
We offer the option to opt out of different communication methods, by clicking here and visiting the MyGMB area.
Where you have opted out of receiving this information by all communication methods, you will receive it by post.
Signing up to GMB campaigns
When you join a GMB Campaign or fill in a survey on the GMB website, GMB will notify you what signing the petition entails – this states that the act of signing the petition means that we will use that information to contact you in future to keep you updated on campaigns you are interested in. You can unsubscribe or ask for your information to be deleted at any time.
Where you are GMB member, we may keep this information against your member record so that we know what campaigns you are interested in.
When you contact GMB
When you contact GMB, the forms you complete or the emails you send may include information about you, such as your name as the contact point for an organisation, your email address, the organisation's address and your enquiry. We use this information to respond to your enquiries, and may use information provided to update your membership record. Our members and officers may need to record and pass information internally within GMB in order to answer your inquiry.
If you are a member, when you contact us about a problem or issue, we may need to ask you for additional information. You are under no obligation to provide additional information, but it may impact upon your case if you do not do so.
Processing your information: who, what and where?
GMB employees and lay representatives will have access to GMB membership information in order to provide you with services and communicate with your as part of your GMB membership.
GMB will never sell your information to a third party for their own use. We will use third parties to provide services on our behalf, this includes but is not limited to such organisations as mailing houses to print and deliver letters for us, email service providers and research companies who conduct member surveys. We may use contractors or other agents to deliver GMB member services or provide benefits.
We check every supplier we use to ensure safety and security of data, and to make sure that membership information is only used for the purposes we intend.
We will make all efforts to ensure GMB information is stored within the EEA, but there may be occasions where this is not possible. Where member information is transmitted outside the EEA, GMB will always ensure appropriate data processing agreements are in place and that GMB member information is secure. Information will be covered by EU-US Privacy Shield or appropriate model clause contracts where stored in the US.
GMB is organised at a number of levels, at which both employees and lay member representatives provide member services. Your information may be collected and shared between those different parts of the union, which include GMB nationally, regionally and at branch and workplace level.
Social media has become a way of life for many people. GMB may use the information you provide to contact you on social media, but will never give information to social media companies for their own use.