26 May 2022
A response to Brewdog and Wiser’s mishandling of data
We are disappointed to learn that Wiser, the company hired to complete the Independent Review into workplace culture at Brewdog and one that we entered into good faith discussions with, have shared data from at least one of those interviews directly with Brewdog.
This is not only a breach of trust, but also makes us question the independent nature of Wiser’s review at all. They made a promise not just to us, but to all participants that their anonymity would be upheld. This has been proven to have been broken.
We feel the conclusions drawn from the Review must be called into question given the breach of confidentiality and clear agenda that resulted from it.
It also makes us concerned that current Brewdog staff members may feel the need to censor their opinions when talking to Wiser for fear of similar actions in the follow-up review which has been announced for later this year. After all, if the company is willing to break their anonymity agreement once, they could easily do so again.
Yet again, Brewdog has proven that the culture of fear we spoke about in the Open Letter is still alive and well, this time with the collusion of a third party company who was tasked with looking into the accusations and experiences.
The trust they claimed to foster has been shown to be false, and potentially in breach of data protection regulations.
We apologise wholeheartedly to all ex-staff who were encouraged to engage in this process in good faith. If you took part in these interviews, and are concerned about how your data was used, please contact us or Hand and Heart for assistance. Hand and Heart are operating the Brewdog Affected Workers Platform and are truly independent, rather than having been appointed by Brewdog. They can provide legal support to Platform Participants.
We’d encourage all interested parties to visit fanny.wandel on instagram for a full timeline of the issues with Wiser’s Independent Review. These can be found in the highlights section of that profile.