OFS Fitel, LLC (“OFS”) is committed to safeguarding the privacy of the Personal Information (as described below) that we gather and use concerning our current, former, and prospective employees (“you” or “employees”) for our management, human resources, payroll, and other lawful purposes.

As an OFS employee (or prospective employee), you understand, consent to, and acknowledge that we collect, use and disclose (i.e., generally “process”) your Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy (“Policy”). This Policy governs our data collection, processing and usage practices. It also describes your choices regarding use, access and correction of your Personal Information.

Application of this Policy

This Policy applies to employees’ Personal Information and to the use of that Personal Information in any form – whether oral, electronic or written. The term “Personal Information” in this Policy refers to information that identifies or is capable of identifying you as an individual.

References to “OFS”, “we” and “our” throughout this Policy, depending on the context, collectively refers to all the legal entities within the OFS family of companies, including the entity with which you have or may have an employment relationship.

Your Personal Information may be disclosed to and processed by multiple OFS entities for any lawful purpose. While this Policy is intended to describe the broadest range of our Personal Information processing activities globally, such activities may be more limited in some jurisdictions based on applicable laws, and in those instances, we adjust our policies and/or practices accordingly.

Acknowledgment of this Policy

By your employment (and/or application for employment) with OFS, you hereby expressly acknowledge that you have read, understand, and agree to all of the terms of this Policy, as outlined herein and as it may be modified by OFS from time to time without prior notice.

By acknowledgment of this Policy you are, to the extent required under applicable law, granting your explicit, express and written consent to the processing and cross-border transfers of any of your Personal Information, including Personal Information that is considered to be Sensitive Personal Information (as described below).

The Types of Personal Information We Process

The types of Personal Information that we process, may vary by jurisdiction (based on applicable law) and the nature of the employee’s position and duties, location of employment, citizenship, and other factors. Personal Information includes, but is not limited to:

  • name, email address, home address and telephone number, date of birth, gender, image, biometric information, marital status, emergency contacts;
  • residency and work permit status, military status, nationality and passport information;
  • social security or other taxpayer identification number, banking details;
  • height, weight and clothing sizes, physical limitations and special needs;
  • date of hire, date(s) of promotions(s), work history, technical skills, educational background, professional certifications and registrations, language capabilities, training courses attended;
  • acknowledgements regarding OFS’ policies, including ethics and/or conflicts of interest policies, and computer and other corporate resource usage policies;
  • sick pay, pensions, insurance and other benefits information (including the gender, age, nationality and passport information for any spouse, minor children or other eligible dependents and beneficiaries);
  • records of work absences, vacation entitlement and requests, salary history and expectations, performance appraisals, letters of appreciation and commendation, and disciplinary and grievance procedures (including monitoring compliance with and enforcing OFS policies);
  • where permitted by law and proportionate in view of the function to be carried out by an employee or prospective employee, the results of references, credit and criminal background checks, the results of drug and alcohol testing, screening, health certifications, driving license number, vehicle registration and driving history;
  • information required to comply with laws, the requests and directions of law enforcement authorities or court orders (e.g., child support or garnishment information);
  • information captured on security systems, including CCTV and key card entry systems and other security and technology systems, to the extent permitted by applicable law;
  • voicemails, emails, correspondence and other work product and communications created, stored or transmitted by an employee using OFS’ computer or communications equipment;
  • date of resignation or termination, reason for resignation or termination, information relating to administering termination of employment (e.g., references); and
  • any other relevant data that is deemed to be necessary to OFS as the employer.

Much of the Personal Information we process is information that you knowingly provide to us. However, in other instances, we process (i) Personal Information that we are able to infer about you based on our interactions with you or on other information you provide to us, or (ii) Personal Information about you that we receive from a third party.

There may be instances in which the Personal Information that you provide to us or we collect is considered Sensitive Personal Information under the privacy laws of some countries. Those laws define “Sensitive Personal Information” to mean Personal Information from which we can determine or infer an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs or other beliefs of a similar nature, political opinions, membership in a trade union or professional association, physical or mental health or condition, genetic or biometric data, sexual life or judicial data (including information concerning the commission or alleged commission of a criminal offense). We only process Sensitive Personal Information to the extent permitted by applicable law.

How We Use Your Personal Information

Depending on the applicable laws, we may collect, use and disclose Personal Information for any lawful purpose, including, but not limited to:

  • evaluating applications for employment;
  • managing all aspects of an employee’s employment relationship, including, but not limited to, payroll, benefits, corporate travel and other reimbursable expenses, development and training, absence monitoring, performance assessment, disciplinary and grievance processes, and other general administrative and human resource processes;
  • developing staffing and succession plans;
  • maintaining sickness records and occupational health programs;
  • protecting the safety and security of OFS employees and property (including controlling access to and monitoring activity in secured premises and activity using OFS computers, communications and other resources);
  • investigating and responding to claims against OFS;
  • conduct employee opinion surveys and administering employee recognition programs;
  • administering termination of employment and providing and maintaining references;
  • maintaining emergency contact and beneficiary details (which involves OFS holding information on those you designate as such); and
  • complying with applicable laws (e.g., health and safety), including judicial or administrative orders regarding individual employees (e.g., garnishments or child support payments).

Unless otherwise stated, all Personal Information we request from you is obligatory . If you do not provide and/or allow us to process all Personal Information as requested, we will not be able to keep complete information about you, thus affecting our ability to accomplish the purposes set out above as they may apply to you.

We may retain certain Personal Information about you after your employment ends for any lawful purpose. For example, we may retain Personal Information to comply with applicable legal, tax, accounting, or regulatory requirements. For specific record retention time-periods, you may review the OFS Record Retention Policy here. We will only retain such Personal Information for as long as it is necessary and in all cases for no longer than permitted by applicable law.

Disclosure of Your Personal Information

In general, in order to carry out the purposes above, Personal Information about you may be disclosed to OFS, managers, supervisors, staff, consultants, advisers and other appropriate persons as needed, subject to the requirements of this Policy.

  • Our Service Providers and Suppliers
    Like many businesses, at times we may outsource the processing of certain functions and/or information to third parties. For example, when you apply for a position with us online, you may be transferred to a third party site with whom OFS has contracted to process your Personal Information on our behalf. When we do outsource the processing of your Personal Information to third parties or provide your Personal Information to third-party service providers, we oblige those third parties to protect your Personal Information in accordance with this Policy.
  • Business Transfers
    As we continue to grow our business, we may buy or sell assets. In such transactions, Personal Information may be one of the transferred business assets, and we may include your Personal Information as an asset in any such transfer.
  • Legal Requirements
    We reserve the right to disclose any Personal Information we have concerning you if we are compelled to do so by a court of law or requested to do so by a governmental entity or if we determine it is necessary or desirable to comply with the law or to protect or defend our rights or property in accordance with applicable laws. We also reserve the right to retain and process Personal Information to comply with accounting, tax rules, regulations and any applicable record retention laws and policies.

Centralized Data Processing and Cross-Border Transfer of Your Personal Information

OFS is headquartered in the United States and has subsidiaries in many parts of the world. Like most international businesses, we have centralized certain aspects of our data processing and human resources administration in order to allow us to better manage our business. That centralization may result in the transfer of Personal Information from one country to another (“cross-border transfer”). The data protection laws in the United States may differ from those of the country in which you are located (and/or a citizen of), and your Personal Information may be subject to access requests from governments, courts, or law enforcement in the United States according to the laws of the United States. By providing us with your Personal Information, you consent to this transfer.

For example, if you are employed or are candidate for employment at an OFS location outside of the United States, some of your Personal Information may be accessed from, transferred to, and processed and stored in the United States. As another example, if you are employed by OFS in the United States and are being considered for an OFS position in a different country, some Personal Information concerning you may be accessed from, transferred to, and processed and stored in the country where the job opening is located.

Whenever your Personal Information is transferred within OFS, including from one OFS entity to another in different countries, your Personal Information will be processed in accordance with the terms and conditions of this Policy and applicable laws. We have taken appropriate safeguards to require that your Personal Information will remain protected and further details can be provided upon request by contacting us as described in the Requests section below.

Updating or Accessing Your Personal Information

You may inquire about the Personal Information we maintain about you by sending us a written request by letter or email to the address set out in the Requests section below. Please be sure to include your full name, current (or last) job title and place of employment with OFS, and a copy of a document evidencing your identity (such as a valid ID card or passport) so we can ascertain your identity and the Personal Information we maintain about you. We may not disclose data that you are not entitled to receive under applicable laws.

We will initially respond to your request within ten (10) business days and in accordance with applicable law. We reserve the right to charge you a nominal fee, if and to the extent permitted under applicable law, for processing any such request. Where you make more than one request, we may respond to your subsequent request by referring to our earlier response and only identifying any items that have changed materially.

You may request that we correct or delete Personal Information that we hold about you on legitimate grounds by sending a letter or email to the address set out in the Requests section below. If we agree that the information is incorrect, we will delete or correct the information. Otherwise, we will tell you that we do not agree and record the fact that you consider that information to be incorrect in the relevant file(s).

Protecting Your Personal Information

The Personal Information we collect from you is stored on secured databases protected by a combination of physical and electronic access controls, firewall technology and other reasonable security measures. Nevertheless, such security measures cannot prevent all loss, misuses or alteration of Personal Information, and we are not responsible for any damages or liabilities relating to any such incidents to the fullest extent permitted by law. Where required under law, we will notify you of any such loss, misuse or alteration of Personal Information that may affect you, so that you can take the appropriate actions to protect your rights.

Additional Notice to California Residents

If you are a California resident, under California Civil Code Section 1798.83, once a year you may request a notice from us regarding our disclosure of Personal Information, if any, to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please contact us using the contact details provided in the Requests section below.

In addition, under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”), effective January 1, 2020, if you are a California resident, you have the following rights:

  • The right to request the deletion of your Personal Information;
  • The right to opt out of the sale of your Personal Information (from businesses that sell Personal Information); and
  • Up to two times a year, you have the right to request access to your Personal Information that we collected, used, and/or disclosed, during the preceding 12 months, which shall include:
    • The categories of Personal Information that we’ve collected, used, or shared for business purposes.
    • The source from which we collected such Personal Information.
    • The third parties with whom we’ve shared that Personal Information.
    • The business or commercial purpose for collecting that Personal Information.
    • The specific pieces of Personal Information we’ve collected about you.

Regarding the right to opt out of the sale of your Personal Information, please note that we do not sell Personal Information.

For purposes of exercising your rights under this section, please note the following regarding how we collect and use your Personal Information as described in this Policy:

  • We collect the following categories of Personal Information: Identifiers; payment information; commercial information; professional or employment-related information; characteristics of protected classifications under California or federal law; audio, electronic, visual, or similar information; internet or other electronic network activity information; geolocation data.
  • We disclose the following categories of Personal Information for business purposes, as needed: Identifiers; payment information; commercial information; professional or employment-related information; audio, electronic, visual, or similar information; internet or other electronic network activity information; geolocation data.

To submit a request under this section, please contact us using the details provided in the Requests section below. We will not discriminate against you because you exercise your rights under this section.

Additional Notice to Residents of the European Economic Area (EEA)

  • Your Data Protection Rights
    As noted above, you may request access to or ask us to correct, update, or delete your Personal Information. We will consider your request in accordance with applicable laws. In addition, you can object to processing of your Personal Information, ask us to restrict processing of your Personal Information, or request portability of your Personal Information. You can exercise these rights by contacting us using the contact details provided in the Requests section below. Similarly, if we have collected and processed your Personal Information with your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us. Withdrawing your consent will not affect any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your Persona Information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent. Lastly, you have the right to address your concerns to a data protection authority about our collection and use of your Personal Information. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority (contact details for data protection authorities in the EEA, are available here).
  • Legal Basis for Processing Personal Information
    If you are a resident of the EEA, our legal basis for collecting and using the Personal Information described in this Policy will depend on the Personal Information concerned and the specific context in which we collect it. However, we will normally collect Personal Information from you where the processing is in our legitimate interests and not overridden by your data protection interests or fundamental rights and freedoms. Typically, as an employer, our legitimate interests include: improving, maintaining, providing, and enhancing the technology, content, benefits and services we provide to you; and ensuring the security of our employees and facilities. In other situations, where required by law, we will collect your Personal Information only where we have your consent to do so. If you have any questions about or need further information concerning the legal basis on which we collect and use your Personal Information, please contact us using the contact details provided in the Requests section below.
  • International Data (Cross-Border) Transfers
    As noted above, OFS is headquartered in the United States. If you are located anywhere outside of the United States (including in the EEA), please be aware that some information we collect, including Personal Information, will be transferred to, processed and stored in the United States. We have taken appropriate safeguards to require that your Personal Information will remain protected in accordance with this Policy. Some of these safeguards include requiring OFS entities to protect Personal Information they process from the EEA in accordance with European data protection laws, including Regulations (EU) 2016/679 (the General Data Protection Regulations (“GDPR”)). We have implemented similar appropriate safeguards with our third-party service providers.

Changes to this Policy

Just as our business changes, from time to time this Policy may also change to reflect new or different privacy practices. If the changes will materially affect the way we use or disclose previously-collected Personal Information, we will send a change notice to your primary mailing and/or email address we have on file. We encourage you to review this Policy periodically.

Requests, Questions or Complaints

If you have any questions about this Policy, about the processing of your Personal Information as described herein, or any concerns or complaints with regard to the administration of the Policy, or if you would like to submit a request (in the manner described in the Updating or Accessing, Additional Notice to California Residents, or Additional Notice to Residents of the EEA sections above) for access to the Personal Information that we maintain about you, please contact us by either of the following means:

  • for current employees, by contacting your manager/supervisor or your human resources manager; and
  • for applicants and former employees, by contacting the Human Resources Department at OFSPrivacy@ofsoptics.com or by mail at 2000 Northeast Expressway, Norcross, GA 30071 USA

In the alternative, as of January 1, 2020, if you are a California resident, you may also submit a request by contacting us at 1-877-416-9790.

When receiving a request, we will verify that the individual making the request is the individual to whom the Personal Information pertains to. California residents may exercise their rights themselves or may use an authorized agent to make requests to disclose certain information about the processing of their Personal Information or to delete Personal Information on their behalf. If you use an authorized agent to submit a request, we may require that you provide us additional information demonstrating that the agent is acting on your behalf.

Last Revised: March 2020

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