Morrisons prepares defence against 2,000 staff data leak claim

Morrisons is now looking to defend itself against a group claim by 2,000 of its employees over possibly one of the biggest ever breaches of data security in Britain.

The Bradford-headquartered supermarket chain has appointed DWF to defend the claim, which is expected to be filed in the next couple of weeks.

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, accusing Morrisons of failing to prevent the breaches of privacy, confidence and data protection law.

Nick McAleenan, a data privacy lawyer at JMW Solicitors 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.

“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.”

As reported in The Lawyer, DWF partner Andrew Harris has instructed 11KBW junior Anya Proops to join the case.

Want your business, product or service to be seen regionally and nationally? Bdaily helps you get your story in front of the right audience, every day. Find out how Bdaily can help →

Join more than 55,000 subscribers by signing up to our daily bulletin each morning here.