Privacy Notice

Introduction

At BALPA we are committed to protecting your privacy and promise to respect your personal information and do all we can to keep it safe. We aim to be clear about how we process your personal details and only process them in ways we believe you would reasonably expect.

We always aim to communicate with you respectfully, effectively and efficiently. As a member of BALPA you will receive our quarterly publication, digital communications and general newsletters plus there is a forum for you to express your views on a range of issues. As a legitimate aim of BALPA we shall communicate with you in ways that are most convenient using email, SMS, phone or post to further the aims and objectives of BALPA as captured in the rulebook. This will include being involved in communications with a legitimate interest including company newsletters, ballots, elections and surveys related to the core industrial relations issues that affect you and your colleagues in the workplace.

HOW WE COLLECT INFORMATION ABOUT YOU

When you join BALPA we collect your personal details

We store your personal details on the BALPA secure database; it is a legitimate aim of a trade union to provide you with information about furthering the aims and objectives of BALPA covering themes that are technical, flight safety oriented and industrial relations related. Therefore, we need to keep your personal contact details as up to date as possible.

When you participate in our surveys or when you apply for assistance with technical or legal matters relating to your professional duties we will carefully and securely store your personal information.

We do not share any of your personal details with third parties without your consent. For example, we would need your consent to share your personal information with an appointed lawyer if BALPA recommends that the legal profession should be approached for advice about an incident that involves you.

When you give it to us indirectly, for example, when we undertake membership mapping in the workplace we will check that our database is up to date from information gleaned from your elected representatives in the workplace to ensure that our membership data is up to date. You will appreciate that taking industrial action, albeit always a last resort, requires BALPA under current legislation to declare the strength of the membership. Therefore, keeping our database up to date is an important legitimate aim, which is facilitated through regular membership mapping by comparing and contrasting pilot lists from your employer.

When other organisations have permission to share your details or it is available publicly

In addition to the data you give us on joining the association and participating in our legitimate trade union activities, we may seek further information about you that is publicly available from external sources. We use this information to enable us to update you about our work and how you can get involved in the most appropriate ways to support our aims and objectives:

Social media

Depending on your settings or the privacy policies for social media and messaging services like Facebook, Whatsapp or Twitter, we might have permission to access information from those sources to show you our own social media feeds.

Other information that is available publicly

This may include information found in publicly available sources such as Companies House, LinkedIn, Government websites, biographical directories and information that has been published in reputable media.

What personal information might we collect from you?

In supporting BALPA through your membership with us, we will usually
collect:

Your name
Your contact details, including postal address, email, telephone numbers
Your date of birth
Bank account details for your subscriptions made by direct debit
Your rank, base and position within your company
Your interests in aviation and other interests where necessary
Other personal information or sensitive data you share with us, such as your family information, health information you may have told us about that will help BALPA support you with internal issues with your employer or external issues with the regulator or legal system.

How do we use this information?

The information we gather helps us to send you what you want to keep you apprised of industrial relations issues and technical developments relating to the aviation industry where BALPA conducts lobbying and campaigning on your behalf as a respected professional body.

It also helps us to shape our trade union activities to ensure that our communication is relevant and timely, and to provide you with a good experience of being a supporter of BALPA.

Importantly, having accurate information that we can analyse enables us to tailor approaches and to be wise stewards of the resources entrusted to us, ensuring that we maximise the return on our efforts to improve flight safety in the industry and enhance terms and conditions of employment over time.

We will use your personal information to:

Provide you with the information, resources or services that form the basis of your membership of BALPA
Keep you up to date with the work you are supporting as a BALPA member both by your own elected representatives and the broader association linking to the affiliations with the
European Cockpit Association, International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations and the International Transport Federation.
Administer your membership
Keep a record of your subscriptions, questions you have asked us, or comments or complaints you have made
Understand how we can improve our services based on your interests and interactions with us
Understand how we can improve our services, and the resources or information we send out to you

We do not sell or share personal details

BALPA does not sell or share personal details with third parties for the purposes of their marketing.

Legal basis for processing your data

Consent

We will process your personal data based on you being a member of the association and the consent you provide. The data will be processed in accordance with the data protection principles captured in the Data Protection Act.

Legitimate interest for current BALPA members

BALPA members have a legitimate interest reason to continue receiving information about the aims and objectives of the professional association and trade union. If you have unsubscribed from any of our routine communications, we will continue to respect your wishes. However, for the purpose of furthering BALPA’s legitimate trade union activities we shall continue to contact you to participate in important ballots, elections and industrial relations activities related to your own employer and the functioning of BALPA.

Legitimate interest for past and potential supporters

We rely on legitimate interest to correspond with former and potential future members in the workplace to encourage the maximum number of members to further the collective bargaining agenda. We use information we gather to help us plan an appropriate approach, such as a meeting or an event invitation, where we could share further information about BALPA and explore your interest and opportunities for joining BALPA.

Protecting your personal information

The security of your information is very important to us. We ensure that there are appropriate controls and procedures in place to protect your personal details. For example, information you submit on a physical form is securely stored or when filling out online forms they are stored on a secure server.

However, despite all the security and protection we put in place, the Internet cannot be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Therefore, you submit data at your own risk.

We undertake regular reviews of who has access to information we hold to ensure that your details are only accessible by appropriately trained and authorised staff and representatives.

Your information may be passed to service providers that perform functions on our behalf, such as sending postal mail, for example, the quarterly publication, The Log, formal member surveys or elections and ballots that have to be legally overseen by an independent scrutineer in accordance with the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidated) Act. These companies may only use your information to perform these functions and may not use it for any other purposes. We carry out comprehensive checks on these companies before we work with them and put a contract in place that sets out our expectations and requirements, especially regarding how they manage the personal data to which they have access. They are required to destroy this information once the function for which it has been transferred has been carried out.

If required, we may need to disclose your details to the police, regulatory bodies or legal advisors.

Due to the nature of servers and cloud-based storage, it may mean that during the processing of your data it leaves the European Economic Area. We will take steps to make sure they provide an adequate level of protection in accordance with UK data protection law. By submitting your personal data to BALPA you are agreeing to this potential transfer, storing and processing at a location outside the EEA.

We will only ever share your data in other circumstances if we have your explicit, informed and unambiguous consent. We shall only use your data for the purpose for which it was given.

Keeping your information up to date

Please keep your personal contact details up to date. We would really appreciate it if you let us know if your contact or personal details change as this gives us consent to use the updated information and continue to communicate with you.

How long we will keep your information for

We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary to carry out the activity relevant to your interaction with us.
We will keep a record of your subscriptions you have made for at least seven years.
Any support given for internal disciplinary or grievance cases or external legal cases in relation to your professional duties will be kept for six years.
If you ask us to cease your membership, we will keep a record of your basic contact details and appropriate information to enable us to comply with your request.

Right of access

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you. If there are any discrepancies in the details we provide, please let us know and we will correct them.

If you want to access your information, send a description of the information you want to see and proof of your identity by post to Head of Organisation, BALPA House, 5 Heathrow Boulevard, 278 Bath Road, West Drayton, Middlesex, UB7 0DQ. We do not accept these requests by email, so that we can ensure that we only provide personal information to the right person.

For further information on your rights to information please see the Information Commissioner’s guidance at www.ico.org.uk

Changes to this notice

We may change this Privacy Notice from time to time. If we make any significant changes in the way we treat your personal information, we will make this clear on the BALPA website, through our official publications and/or by contacting you directly.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions about this notice, please contact the Data Protection Officer, BALPA House, 5 Heathrow Boulevard, 278 Bath Road, West Drayton, Middlesex, UB7 0DQ or phone 020 8476 4005 or email JohnStembridge-King@balpa.org

Baby on Board reaches its first birthday

We look back at a year of Baby on Board and outline the work that will continue in the year to come.

Monday 17 February 2020

Pilots urge airlines to take up an apprenticeship scheme to help end the scandal of training costs

As part of National Apprenticeship Week (3-7th Feb) BALPA is challenging the Government and airlines to fully implement an apprenticeship scheme for pilots that would help remove financial barriers and open up the career to a more diverse population.

Thursday 06 February 2020

Students? Apprentices? Customers? The challenge in defining what a trainee pilot is

As part of National Apprenticeship Week BALPA is challenging the aviation industry to find ways to roll out pilot apprenticeships (link to release) in a bid to remove the financial barrier to pilot training which puts off those from less affluent backgrounds. In this blog, Head of Membership and Career Services at BALPA, Wendy Pursey examines the challenge.