Last updated 12:01, Thursday, 26 June 2008

GLAXO workers fear they will fall victim to fraudsters after their personal details were sent to all staff at the Ulverston site.

REPENTANT: Glaxo boss Richard Pamenter REF: 0419625

The emails contained information such as names, dates of birth, addresses, pensions, National Insurance numbers and, in some cases, redundancy payouts, of more than 500 employees.

A reliable source, who wishes to remain anonymous, says GSK staff from across south and west Cumbria are up in arms.

They fear the information has been sent out to all 110,000 employees in the UK and US. And some feel they could become victims of identity theft by cash-strapped workers facing redundancy.

The source said: “The mails sent out all with attachments on the intranet, which is the internal mailing system.

“When they were opened up they gave details of all 540 or so workers. It had such details as their names, address, position and if they had put in for redundancy what figures they could expect.

“For instance one of the bosses is getting £200,000 redundancy and then a £40,000 a year pension. A few days after this happened a letter saying sorry was sent out to all employees.

“Folk are rightly concerned that there could be unscrupulous people who would want to hijack people’s identities.

“ With the threat of redundancy hanging over everyone’s head there is a real risk that someone could make money selling the information on, as GSK haven’t shown any loyalty to the workers.”

GSK has apologised to staff, saying it regrets the incident and has made steps to make sure the breach is never repeated.

The firm claims only Ulverston workers had access to the information.

The Evening Mail managed to obtain a copy of the letter sent to staff.

In it, Ulverston site director Richard Pamenter said: “I wanted to make sure you were made aware that information has been inadvertently released on both the GSK e-mail and intranet systems, which if used inappropriately, could permit access to certain personal information for staff.

“If any of these documents are used inappropriately, this could allow access to information on individuals’ date of birth, job grade, National Insurance number and home address.

“Additionally, for some staff, information on pensions, quotes and redundancy payments could be accessed. We have removed the information source from the intranet and are currently progressing the removal of documents and relevant attachments from the company email.

“We very much regret this incident has occurred and I would like to apologise unreservedly for any embarrassment or inconvenience caused.”

GSK senior union representative for Unite, Steve Mashiter, said: “There has been a release of confidential information and we will be taking it up with the management.”

A spokesperson from GSK’s head offices in London said: “We can confirm that only the Ulverston site was affected by these details being released in error. We have apologised to staff and have looked into the matter and discovered the cause.”