Privacy

Privacy Statement

1. WHAT IS OUR COMMITMENT TO YOUR PRIVACY?

Harmers Workplace Lawyers respects the privacy of your personal information. We will only gather personal information where it is necessary for one or more of our functions or activities.

We are committed to ensuring that we comply at all times with the National Privacy Principles (“NPPs”) as set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Act”).

The NPPs may be obtained by contacting the Federal Privacy Commissioner’s office on 1300 363 992 or visiting www.privacy.gov.au.

This policy outlines the steps we take to ensure compliance with our obligations and the protection of your rights under the Act. This document is available to anyone who asks for it.

The meaning of some of the terms used in this policy is provided at the end of this document (see section 16).

2. WHEN DO THE NATIONAL PRIVACY PRINCIPLES APPLY?

The NPPs apply to the collection, use and disclosure of personal or sensitive information (see definition in section 16).

We may use personal information for the primary purpose it was collected for or for a reasonably expected related purpose.

There are certain specified exceptions to the application of the NPPs. For example, we are exempt from complying with the NPPs in the following situations:

• employee records: we can use or disclose information contained in employee records where it is directly related to the employment relationship. This applies to current and former employees. If we disclose personal information regarding employees, the third party to whom we have disclosed the information, such as a superannuation fund, will be bound by the NPPs.
  If you are a candidate for future employment with us, this exemption does not apply and you, or the agency representing you, will need to authorise us to use your personal information to undertake activities related to your candidature, such as checking your employment history and contacting referees.
• use in legal proceedings: where we have collected information for a purpose other than the primary purpose of collection, we can use or disclose personal information where we reasonably believe that the use or disclosure is reasonably necessary for the preparation for, or conduct of, proceedings before any court or tribunal, or implementation of the orders of a court or tribunal.

3. WHAT KIND OF PERSONAL OR SENSITIVE INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

We may collect different types of information depending on the purpose of collection. We may collect information such as:

All individuals, including target clients:

• name, address, occupation, professional memberships and contact information;
• interest in areas of our legal practice and events; and
• opinions about you, for example, as a worker or service provider.

Our clients:

• credit card or bank account details;
• work history (such as your letter of appointment, records of any salary adjustments, written warnings, sick leave);
• health history;
• details of previous legal actions;
• financial circumstances;
• family arrangements;
• leave history; and
• if you are an employer, personal information relating to your employees.

Our employees, contractors and other persons who work in our workplace:

• date of birth;
• bank account details;
• tax file number and taxation information such as HECS information;
• work history;
• health history in some circumstances, such as for insurance purposes;
• emergency contact details;
• references; and
• superannuation information.

If you do not give us the personal information we request, it may affect our ability to meet our obligations to you, as your lawyers, or our obligations as your employer or as a provider of work to you.

Sensitive information

Generally, we do not collect sensitive information. However, we may collect sensitive information from you in certain circumstances with your consent or where it is required by law. The definition of sensitive information is at the end of this document.

4. HOW DO WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION?

We will generally only collect personal information from you. This may be collected through means such as written correspondence, via telephone or in meetings with our staff.

At or before the time (or, if that is not practicable, as soon as practicable after) we collect personal information we will take steps to ensure that you are aware of:

If it is reasonable and practicable to do so, we will collect personal information about you only from you.

In some circumstances it may be necessary for one or more of our functions or activities for us to collect personal information about you from a third party.

Where we have collected personal information about you from a third party we will take reasonable steps to ensure you are aware of the matters listed above in (a) to (f) inclusive.

5. WHAT ARE YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES IF YOU PROVIDE OTHER PEOPLE’S PERSONAL INFORMATION TO US?

If you provide personal information to us about someone else you must ensure that you are entitled to disclose that information to us and that, without us taking any further steps required by privacy laws, we may collect, use and disclose such information for the purposes described above.

6. HOW DO WE USE PERSONAL INFORMATION?

We will tell you the purposes for which we intend to use your personal information.

We will use personal information obtained about you for the primary purpose it was collected or a reasonably related purpose.

If you are a client or target client, we may also use the information to inform you of recent developments in our areas of expertise or upcoming seminars. If you do not wish to receive these communications please contact our Privacy Officer (whose details are provided in section 15).

We will only use the information for other purposes if your consent is obtained, or if we are otherwise entitled to do so under the Act.

As a law firm and employer we are bound by a common law duty of confidentiality. This duty means that we do not disclose information relating to or arising from our relationship, including personal information, unless authorised by you or where it is required by law. We respect this duty of confidence and will continue to do so in accordance with our common law obligations and our obligations under the Act.

7. DO WE USE COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT IDENTIFIERS?

We do not adopt Commonwealth Government identifiers, such as a tax file number or a Medicare number, as a means of identifying individuals.

8. WHO WILL USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Only appropriate employees of our firm will access personal information necessary to perform our functions and activities, such as providing legal services to you, or for employment related activities such as your application for employment with us.

In some circumstances it may be necessary for us to disclose personal information about you to provide legal advice, commence legal proceedings or for employment related activities. The types of third parties we may need to provide information to include:

• barristers;
• other experts/specialists;
• auditors;
• a court, tribunal or regulatory authority; and
• service providers such as document management or legal document reproduction companies, agency employees, superannuation funds and insurers.

Where you have provided information to a third party that we are required to verify by the third party (such as your employment history), we will request that you consent to our disclosure of the information. For example, if you are an employee, this may include situations such as financial institutions or potential employers contacting us to confirm details of your employment.

9. HOW DO WE ENSURE ACCURACY OF INFORMATION?

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the data we collect, use or disclose is complete and up to date and has been obtained directly from individuals or reputable sources.

We request that if any of your personal information changes, you notify us as soon as possible.

10. IS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION SECURE?

We make every effort to ensure that the personal information we hold is protected from misuse or unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Our security measures include, but are not limited to:

• restricting access to our computer systems to authorised persons through the use of user names and passwords. These restrictions also allow us to track which authorised persons have accessed records;
• the use of firewalls, intrusion detection devices and virus scanning tools to prevent unauthorised persons and viruses entering our systems;
• controlling access to physical records and providing secure and storage through the use of physical barriers such as digital locks.

11. HOW DO YOU ACCESS INFORMATION WE HOLD ABOUT YOU?

If you wish to access personal information we hold about you, please contact our Privacy Officer.

We are entitled to refuse a request to access personal information in particular circumstances (such as where providing access would be unlawful or would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of other individuals).

Where we reject a request for access we will inform you of the reasons for the decision.

Where the request is accepted, we may charge you a reasonable fee for providing you with access to your personal information.

12. DO WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION FOR MARKETING PURPOSES?

Serving clients is fundamental to our business. If you are a client or a target client, as part of our service to you, we may use personal information we have collected to identify products and services that might be of use to you, such as our newsletter. If you do not wish to receive marketing information from us, please contact our Privacy Officer and this request will be processed as soon as is practicable.

We do not disclose names and addresses to third parties for the purpose of allowing them to market their products and services.

13. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT USING TECHNOLOGY?

Our website is designed to give you useful information in relation to our services, employees, events and current legal issues. To track the use of our website and to continually develop it to meet your needs, we may collect information about who has accessed our site and which pages were viewed so as to determine overall use patterns. We only use such information collected for statistical purposes and do not attempt to identify individual users.

As part of this we may use ‘cookies’. Cookies are used to track information about users of a website. They do not contain any information that could identify you; they identify your computer to our servers. You may set your browser to refuse cookies if you do not wish to allow their use. Some areas of our website may not perform properly if you do not accept cookies.

14. HOW DO YOU ACCESS THE CURRENT INFORMATION REGARDING OUR POLICY?

As our business and website continue to evolve we will review this policy and we may revise it. We reserve the right to change our policy at any time. You can obtain the current version of this policy by contacting the Privacy Officer or accessing the policy on our website at www.harmers.com.au.

The amended privacy policy will apply whether or not we have given you specific notice of any change.

15. WHAT CAN YOU DO IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION OR COMPLAINT?

If you have any further queries about our privacy policy, or if you have a problem or complaint or would like to give us feedback please contact our Privacy Officer.

If we become aware of any ongoing concerns or problems with privacy we will take these issues seriously and work to address these concerns.

If we do not resolve a privacy problem to your satisfaction you can take a complaint further by contacting the Federal Privacy Commissioner’s office on 1300 363 992 or visiting www.privacy.gov.au.

16. WHAT DO SOME OF THE TERMS IN THIS POLICY MEAN?

Disclosure: generally means the release of information to an outside body.

Employee Records: a record of personal information relating to the employment of the employee. This may include health information, the engagement, training, disciplining or resignation of the employee, the termination of employment of the employee, the terms and conditions of employment of the employee, the employee’s personal and emergency contact details, leave records, taxation, superannuation or banking details and the employee’s salary or wages.

Primary Purpose: the dominant reason for information being collected.

Personal information is information or an opinion (including information or an opinion forming part of a database) whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual (not a corporate body) whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion. It includes all personal information regardless of its source.

Sensitive information is a subset of personal information. It means information or opinion about an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership of a professional or trade association, membership of a trade union, sexual preferences or practices, criminal record or health information about an individual.