Thousands of staff hit Morrisons with lawsuit over data leak

Following on from one of the toughest years for the UK’s ‘big-four’ supermarkets, business may be on the brink for one of the retailers once again.

In possibly the biggest ever claim for a breach of data security in Britain, thousands of staff from Morrisons are set to sue the Bradford-based supermarket after their personal information was leaked online.

Approximately 100,000 members of staff had their date of birth, bank, salary and National Insurance details uploaded online by former senior employee, Andrew Skelton, who was previously accused of using the Morrisons’ mailroom for his own eBay customers.

Following a trial at Bradford Crown Court in July, Skelton, who worked as a senior internal auditor at the Bradford head office, was found guilty of leaking the information and as a result, was jailed for eight years.

However, now more than 2,000 of his former colleagues are pursuing a group claim against Morrisons following a hearing before senior master Barbara Fontaine at the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court in London.

They claim that the supermarket chain failed to prevent the breaches of privacy, confidence and data protection law.

Other members of staff have a four-month window to join the group claim, which Nick McAleenan, a data privacy lawyer at JMW Solicitors, believes to have “important implications for every employee and every employer” in the country.

McAleenan, who is representing the employees, added: “My clients’ position is that Morrisons failed to prevent a data leak which exposed tens of thousands of its employees to the very real risk of identity theft and potential loss.

“In particular, they are worried about the possibility of money being taken from their bank accounts and - in the case of younger clients - negative consequences for their credit rating.”

“Whenever employers are given personal details of their staff, they have a duty to look after them.

“That is especially important given that most companies now gather and manage such material digitally and, as a result, it can be accessed and distributed relatively easily if the information is not protected.”

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