Law firm caught up in payroll CD blunder

A CAPITAL law firm has been caught up in the loss of payroll details for tens of thousands of Glasgow council workers.

CDs with data on more than 50,000 employees employed by Glasgow City Council in 2007 and 2009 were given to the Edinburgh-based company Fox and Partners, which is involved in an equal pay case against the council. The discs were then sent to a third party for analysis – but only an empty envelope arrived.

It is understood the discs included information such as payroll numbers, gender, job description and titles, but no individual bank details.

The council have said they are confident there is no risk to staff, and the information on the discs was encrypted, with password sent separately to Fox and Partners.

A council spokesman said: “We were obliged to provide the information, which we did in a secure and anonymised format. This was subsequently lost by a third party.”