Manchester United employees ‘sue the club for up to £100,000’ over major HR breach in which confidential data was ‘accidentally leaked in an email to casual staff’

A group of Manchester United employees are suing the club for up to £100,000 over a serious human resources error.

According Sun167 casual workers employed by the Premier League giants accidentally received emails containing confidential details of some permanent employees.

The data included their payslips, names, addresses, national insurance numbers along with their pension benefits and tax contributions.

It is understood that the confidential information was contained in a single file received by casual staff employed by United in its stadium tours, catering and hospitality departments.

The incident occurred six years ago and was reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

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But the employees whose data was leaked have since lodged a compensation claim with the High Court, arguing that the leaked information could be used to commit financial fraud.

“The club’s billionaire owners should take responsibility for this mistake,” Jonathan Whittle of Your Lawyers, which represents 32 claimants, told The Sun.

A United spokesperson said: “We take the privacy of our employees’ data very seriously and regret this isolated incident, which occurred in 2018.

“Steps were taken to prevent this from happening again and we informed the Information Commissioner’s Office who took no further action.”

The lawsuit comes as a number of jobs could be at stake at United after Sir Jim Ratcliffe appointed corporate restructuring firm Interpath Advisory – an arm of accountancy firm KPMG – to carry out a major exercise. of cost reduction in the club to comply with Profit and Sustainability Standards.

Manchester United’s new co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has tasked insolvency and corporate restructuring firm Interpath Advisory with making major job cuts at the club.

United’s financial results for the second quarter of 2023/24 published on Tuesday showed staff costs had risen to £95.1m during that period compared to £77.3m last season, an outlay that Ratcliffe believes he is holding back Erik Ten Hag’s team.

As Mail Sport exclusively revealed on Wednesday, the Interpath review began earlier this month.

While United have no fixed savings target, the review is expected to lead to a reduction in the club’s workforce of between 20 and 25 per cent, which in practical terms means hundreds of jobs, a plan First revealed by Mail Sport last December. .