Australia Wide Personnel Group – Privacy Policy

Introduction

We manage personal information (both solicited and unsolicited) in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 and Australian Privacy Principles. This policy applies to information collected by Australia Wide Engineering Recruitment, Australia Wide Labour Hire, Australia Wide Trades Recruitment, Australia Wide Office Staffing and Australia Wide Outplacement Services, collectively known as the Australia Wide Personnel Group (AWPG).

This policy sets out how AWPG aims to protect the privacy of your personal information, your rights in relation to your personal information managed by AWPG and the way AWPG collects, holds, uses and discloses your personal information. This policy may be updated from time to time.

You are under no obligation to provide your personal information to AWPG. However, without certain information from you, or where information provided is inaccurate or irrelevant, AWPG may not be able to provide its services to you. Further information is available from the Office of Australian Information Commissioner www.oaic.gov.au. If you have any questions please email enquiries@australiawide.com.au.

Kinds of information that we collect and hold:

Personal information that we collect and hold is information that is reasonably necessary for the proper performance of our functions and activities as a human resources services company, and is likely to differ depending on whether you are:

  • a work seeker
  • a client
  • a referee
  • an employee
  • a recipient of outplacement services

Personal information is any information or opinion about you. Personal information includes sensitive information. Sensitive information is a special category of personal information (ie. information about your health, medical history or specific condition, criminal record, professional memberships etc). The type of personal information that we typically collect and hold includes:

  • resumes and covering letters
  • proof of identity
  • personal details
  • qualifications and professional associations
  • references – work performance feedback
  • skills assessment
  • medical and criminal history
  • vaccination status
  • drivers licence, forklift licence or other vehicular licence
  • confirmation of ability to work in Australia including residency or visa details
  • payroll information including banking details, superannuation fund, tax file number and date of birth
  • client company information

Some laws such as taxation law, immigration law, laws regulating employment agencies, laws relating to national security, laws relating to professional or trade registration and laws for the protection of certain classes of people (such as children or the elderly), may require that we collect certain types of information (including criminal history and evidence of your right to work) from you that is relevant to the position/s for which you may be applying.

Purposes for collecting, holding, using and disclosing your personal information:

Information that we collect, hold, use and disclose about you is typically used to provide our services to you and / or our clients, including:

  • to assist in your work placement
  • to manage our client and business relationships
  • to assist our clients with recruitment
  • for statistical purposes and statutory compliance requirements
  • to assist with career guidance or management
  • to assist in paying you
  • accessing government funded wage subsidies and employer incentives
  • to inform you of possible work opportunities, or other events such as training or information sessions
  • for us to manage and resolve any complaint, workplace incident, workplace injury or investigation in which you are involved
  • to undertake criminal history checks, if required
  • for our direct marketing to you
  • to comply with any law, rule, regulation, lawful and binding determination, decision or direction of a regulator, or in cooperation with any governmental authority

Your Personal Information may be Disclosed to:

  • potential and actual employers and clients of AWPG
  • referees
  • a person who seeks a reference about you
  • our insurers
  • a registration body that has a proper interest in the disclosure of your personal and sensitive information
  • a workers compensation body
  • our contractors and suppliers – e.g. our payroll services providers, I.T. contractors, internet service suppliers and database designers
  • a parent, guardian, holder of an enduring power of attorney (or like authority) or next of kin whom we may contact in any case in which consent is required or notification is to be given and where it is not practicable to obtain it from or give it directly to you
  • any person with a lawful entitlement to obtain the information
  • any relevant federal, state or local government authority

Direct Marketing:

AWPG may use and disclose your personal information in order to inform you of products and services that we believe may be of interest to you. In the event you do not wish to receive such communications, you can opt-out by contacting AWPG via the contract details set out below or through any opt-out mechanism contained in any marketing communications with you.

How your personal information is collected and held:

Personal information will be collected about you directly when:

  • you provide us with your resume or any other information in connection with your application for employment
  • we conduct reference and background checks on you
  • we receive results of any medical tests or criminal history checks (which are only undertaken with your consent)
  • we receive results from any competency tests in which you participate
  • we undertake a VEVO check to assess your eligibility to work within Australia
  • we receive any feedback from or about you in the workplace
  • we receive information from your employer for the provision of career assessments for candidates receiving our outplacement services
  • we collect personal information about you from a range of publicly available sources including newspapers, journals, directories, the internet and social media sites

Personal information is held in our Information Record System until it is no longer needed for any purpose for which it may be used or disclosed, at which time it will be de-identified or destroyed, provided that it is lawful for us to do so.

We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. All personal and sensitive information collected from or about you is treated as confidential with AWPG. No unauthorised person is permitted access to it. Hard copy documents containing such information are held in files that are situated in locations, within our premises, which negate the possibility of casual access by unauthorised persons.

Cross-border disclosures:

No personal information is likely to be disclosed to overseas recipients. However, if you request AWPG to make contact with an overseas referee, past employer or any other person or organisation which is domiciled overseas, some of your personal information may be given out or discussed.

We cannot guarantee that any overseas recipient of your personal information will protect it to the standard to which it ought to be protected due to the costs and difficulties of enforcement or privacy rights in foreign jurisdictions and the impracticability of attempting to enforce such rights in some jurisdictions.

Access & Correction:

If you wish to obtain access to your personal information you should contact our Privacy Officer. You will need to be in a position to verify your identity. There are a number of exceptions in which we may not grant access. These include that giving access would: infringe the privacy of other individuals; be unlawful or pose a serious threat to life or health & safety; be considered vexatious or frivolous; amongst other reasons detailed in the Australian Privacy Principles.

If you find that personal information that we hold about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, you can ask us to correct it. We will take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to correct that information to ensure that, having regard to the purpose for which it is held, the information is accurate, up to date, complete, relevant and not misleading.

If we have disclosed personal information about you that is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, you can ask us to notify the third parties to whom we made the disclosure and we will take such steps (if any) as are reasonable in the circumstances to give that notification, unless it is impracticable or unlawful to do so.

Complaints & Enquiries:

You have a right to complain about our handling of your personal information if you believe that we have interfered with your privacy. If you are making a complaint about our handling of your personal information it should first be made to us in writing. You can make complaints about our handling of your personal information to our Privacy Office – email, enquiries@australiawide.com.au.