Can payslips be left for an employee in a public place?

[headfairy]

dh says it's illegal for my employer to leave my payslip in a public place (pigeon holes in an open plan office which members of the public often walk through)

This issue came up when I was on maternity leave and my employer refused to mail payslips to me. Instead they accumulated in my pigeon hole (a shared one, not individually named) for a year until I collected them. Dh says this means my employer is being neglegent as there is sensitive information in my payslip.

Is he right?

[JarethTheGoblinKing]

Not sure, but would be interested to know as we have a similar set up here.

Pretty tight of your employer not to post them out to you though!

[IDontDoIroning]

Hm I'd also be worried about identity theft. It might be ok if it was a secure area but if there is unrestricted public access there is a real risk of someone accessing them.
I'm not sure about the employer's responsibility, there might be a staff data protection or data security issue which they have responsibility for, which someone might come along later and advise on.
However, if I was you I try to solve this if your employers wont help, either can you visit and pick them up, ask a colleague to hold them for you or leave some stamped addressed envelopes with the HR/ payroll section with a written request that they post them out to you

[headfairy]

Idontdoironing the office doesn't have unrestricted access to the public, as guests do have to be signed in, but there are tours through the building as well as business guests.

I was told the company can't post individual payslips to people. But I'm not so concerned about that now, I'm thinking more about the protection of personal information in general. I work shifts and I'm not always around to collect my payslip on the day they're published. Often it sits in a pigeon hole for days on end.

[mranchovy]

Employment Rights Act 1996 s8(1):

"An employee has the right to be given by his employer, at or before the time at which any payment of wages or salary is made to him, a written itemised pay statement."

If they put payslips in the pigeonholes and you are coming in to work regularly (but don't happen to be in on payday) it is debatable that they are making a resonable effort to comply with this requirement. If you are on ML and won't be coming in to the office, they are definately NOT complying with the law: they should post them to you.

If the payslips are sealed and addressed to you I don't think there is a lot of mileage in the data privacy route in general, although if payslips were going missing so it appeared that someone was stealing them it would be a different matter.