Data Privacy Statement for the MECOS Job Portal

1. General Information

a) Information on data protection

The protection of your personal rights when processing your personal data is an important concern for MECOS.

We process personal data acquired in the course of visits to our career website in accordance with the Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP).

b) Data controller and contact

The data controller for your data within the meaning of data protection law is: MECOS.

For general questions regarding data protection or to exercise your rights, please contact: dataprotection@mecos.com

2. Collection and processing of personal data

a) Data sources and personal data that we collect

Your personal data is generally collected directly from you as part of the recruitment process (application forms, CVs, interviews…). In addition MECOS may receive data from third parties such as recruitment agencies, references supplied by former employers or social platforms such as LinkedIn.

We may process the following categories of personal data:

Contact data (name, surname, email address, phone number, address…)
CV (details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history…)
Nationality and entitlement to work in the country you’re applying to
If applicable, candidate picture
If applicable, driving license information
If applicable and where permitted by law, information regarding character or behavior (personality test)
If applicable and where permitted by law, equal opportunities monitoring information
If applicable and where permitted by law, information from criminal record checks

If we make a final offer, we may also process the following:

Bank account information
Emergency contact details
If applicable and with consent, health information (medical examination)

b) Purpose and legal basis for processing

The purpose for processing your data by MECOS is to assess your suitability for a role you have applied for and to help us develop and improve our recruitment process. We will use your application data for the selection process for the job position you have applied to or other job opportunities if you have consented to it.

The legal basis for the processing of personal data is Art. 6 FADP.

c) Pre-employment screening for all new hires

MECOS performs background checks as part of the recruitment process in order to satisfy the highest possible compliance and integrity standards in its business activities. MECOS must ensure that potential personnel perform their tasks in accordance with high ethical standards and warrant to observe the company's corporate principles in order to minimize legal risks and prevent damage to the company's reputation.

Processing your personal data is necessary for the purpose of establishing an employment relationship with you. MECOS has a legitimate interest to hire candidates who have integrity and act on the basis of valid law. This is ensured by validating the information that you provide to us before you’re offered a contract of employment.

Pre-employment screening involves verifying your personal details (surname, forename, date of birth, address), presenting your original identity card or a comparable document proving your identity, and submitting your original certificates (certificate relating to the highest level of education or, exceptionally, an officially certified copy in paper form).

It is also verified whether you have already worked for MECOS and - limited to this case and in compliance with data protection regulations - whether you seriously committed any infringements of legal and official regulations during the period of employment. For this purpose, personal data are retrieved in the existing personnel file for the last three years.

A comparison is also made with a publicly accessible financial sanctions list according to the valid EU Resolution No. 881/2002. In addition, a matching with the SAM database is carried out in order to identify any involvement in so called reportable facts.

The SAM database of the US authorities contains the name of persons who are only permitted to work for MECOS as employees under certain criteria.

Pre-employment screening for all new hires is carried out by the HR Department and also, if necessary, by Everllence Group Security. Only a restricted group of persons internally is authorized to access your data and ensures compliance with the undermentioned erasure period.

In the event of unusual findings during the background check, the results are discussed in a committee whose members includes a representative from HR Compliance, the manager in the responsible HR department, the manager in the recruiting department and the works council (if applicable). The results of the discussion are documented and entered in the personnel file.

In the case of new hires, all information collected relating to the background check is included in the personnel file where it will be kept according to the retention periods for relevant personnel records and data. Data won’t be processed for any other purpose.

All the information collected relating to the background check will be erased for all non-successful external candidates after six months.

Data must be provided to conclude a contract.

d) Storage and deletion of personal data

In case you are not hired your data will be deleted after the application process is closed. In case you are hired, the data of the application will be transferred to your personal file and deleted after the termination of your working contract, following the expiry of the applicable retention period in accordance with national legislation. All retention periods are subject to the national legislations of the country you are applying in. For more information contact the HR department.

3. Information regarding the use of the MECOS Job Portal

a) Acquisition of General Information

When you access the MECOS Job Portal, information of a general nature is acquired automatically. This information includes the web browser type, the operating system used, the domain name of your internet service provider, etc. None of this information allows you to be identified. The same data is also generated when any other website on the internet is accessed, so this is not a specific function of the MECOS Job Portal. Information of this sort is collected and statistically analyzed by us exclusively in anonymized form. The better we understand your requirements, the faster you will find the information you want on our webpages.

b) Collection and processing of personal data

Personal data is only collected if you make it available to us of your own accord, such as in the course of registration.

c) Security

As a matter of principle, your data is protected by MECOS through technical and organizational security measures so as to prevent its accidental or deliberate manipulation, loss, destruction or access by unauthorized persons. Our security measures, such as data encryption, are improved on a regular basis in line with technological developments.

d) Registration

You do not have to enter any personal data if you just want to find out about job vacancies.

If you wish to apply for a job, however, you can only do so through our MECOS Job Portal. In order to apply, you will first have to register by creating an account, for which you must specify an email address and password. The other required fields are your first name and surname, your telephone number and the country in which you live. Using this registration data, you will then be able to sign into our MECOS Job Portal, apply for jobs, manage your applications or receive email notifications of new job openings.

After entering your registration data, you have to confirm by checking a box that you have taken cognizance of the data protection regulations that apply to the MECOS application process. You cannot proceed with the application process without doing so.

Following registration, you have the option of entering additional data about yourself, such as your address, under “My Profile”. You can upload documents there too. A CV is compulsory for the application process. All data entered in the MECOS Job Portal is voluntary apart from the fields marked with “*” as being required information.

e) Applications

After registering and signing in, you can apply for individual jobs via the “Search Jobs” function within the MECOS Job Portal. To do this, you have to click the “Apply now” button in the relevant job advertisement.

When applying, you have the option of adding further information to your profile or changing your data. You can upload more documents, for example. The company advertising the job may have set technical questions that require an answer from you.

If you wish to apply for an apprenticeship place, we will also want you to tell us the following:
type of school; how you learned about the place; whether you know anyone at MECOS; whether you have done work experience at MECOS.

When you have completed your application and click the “Apply now” button, the application will be forwarded to the person that advertised the job. A pop-up text and a message sent to your email address will confirm that your application has been submitted successfully. You can view your active applications under “My Profile / Job Applications”. You can also withdraw your applications there.

f) Purpose limitation regarding the use of personal data for the MECOS Job Portal

If you are applying for a certain job, your personal data is only used for this specific job offer by the respective HR recruiters that are supervising this job offer. Within the application process there might occur other job possibilities. Your HR recruiter might ask for your consent to forward your applications to other job offers that fit to your profile.

g) Storage and deletion of data for the MECOS Job Portal

When it comes to the storage and deletion of data, we differentiate between your application(s) and your user account. As several applications can be associated with a user account, the application(s) is/are first anonymized before the complete user account can finally be deleted, depending on processing status and defined time limit.

Applications are anonymized after 150 days. The candidates for whom all applications have been rejected, withdrawn or flagged for deletion are anonymized. Applications are anonymized 150 days after they were last processed.

Your user account will remain in place as long as at least one application has “in process” status.

If you do not sign into your user account for a period of 120 days, you will receive an automatic email notification. So as not to store data on inactive users unnecessarily, we will delete your user account permanently and irrecoverably if you do not respond to this notification within a further 30 days.

Apart from that, we will delete your user account if you prompt this by clicking the “Delete profile” button (My Profile à Options à Settings à Delete profile). When the user account is deleted, all registration and profile data, together with all uploaded documents, is deleted or anonymized. For the purposes of proof and in order to respond to complaints, final and irrecoverable deletion/anonymization does not take place for 150 days. During this period, your user account is blocked and cannot be accessed either by employees from the human resources department or by you via the application portal.

4. Your rights

In addition to the right to receive information on data relating to you and to have your data amended, you also have the right to have your data deleted and blocked, and the right to object to your data being processed, unless barred by statutory rules. You also have a right to data portability.

If we acquire and process your personal data based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw the consent you gave. Your withdrawal of consent has no effect on the lawfulness of the data processing that took place based on your consent until it was withdrawn.

In order to withdraw your consent or exercise your rights in relation to your data, please contact the Human Resources Contact specified in the job advertisement to which you are responding and/or Data Protection.

Please note that participation in the MECOS application process is not possible without your personal data being processed.

In the event of any complaints, you have the option of contacting a data protection regulator.

5. Reservations

MECOS may update this Data Privacy Notice at any time subject to data protection law. You can find the latest version on our website or by contacting the HR Department or Data Protection.

General version: 06.2025