Issuing an automated labour policy statement

The Chancellor of Justice requested the Development and Administration centre for ELY Centres and TE Offices (KEHA) to assess the appropriateness of the customer information system used by the Employment and Economic Development Offices (TE Offices) insofar as the automated labour policy statements are concerned.

The TE Office had issued a labour policy statement on the complainant’s conditions for receiving unemployment benefits although the complainant was not an unemployed jobseeker and had not claimed or planned to claim unemployment benefits. The complainant found the statement they received to be condemning. The statement was an automated statement which the customer information system used by the TE Office had issued when certain conditions were met.

According to the Chancellor of Justice’s view, the labour policy statement should not have been issued, because the grounds laid down in the Unemployment Security Act for issuing a statement were not met in the case of the complainant. Issuing a labour policy statement to the complainant did not constitute appropriate service, although the issuance of the statement, based on the information available, did not cause negative consequences on the rights or obligations of the complainant.

The service principle and appropriate service included in the principles of good governance mean, among other things, that the customer receives the services they need appropriately and that a person using services is not subjected to a service that is not based on law and that is potentially offensive.