I have just received notice from my company( loco north of England) to say that, in future, reasons for duty changes will not be given in order to comply with the Data Protection Act. Unfortunately, due to insufficient crews and poor rostering, duty changes are all too frequent.
If the British DPA is anything like the Irish one, and I'm pretty sure it is, that's absolute rubbish. You should challenge them on it, ask them exactly what in the DPA is causing this. When they reply, forward the information to your
Information Commissioner and ask if it's accurate.
(In my experience - of the Canadian and Irish Commissioners - these guys are usually pretty honest, and tend to be hardasses that hate the legislation they're there to implement being used for bull!!!!! like this.)
Good luck, and let us know how you got on.
adam