Workforce Privacy Statement

Personal information is information or an opinion that identifies you or information that can be used to identify who you are. This includes information like your name, contact details and date of birth.

It may also include more sensitive information such as gender, biometric data (e.g. photographic or video images, call recordings) or information about a person’s health or criminal history.  We will only collect sensitive information with your consent, unless required by law.

We collect, use, share and store your information to carry out our business and legal obligations when you commence work and during the course of your employment.  Where practicable we will collect your information directly from you and/or from other people and organisations with your permission.

This may include:

• name, date of birth, gender and contact details (e.g. phone, email, residential address);
• resumes and/or applications and interview notes;
• photographs and video interviews of you;
• letters of offer and acceptance of employment;
• employment history and education qualifications;
• work permits, citizenship status and eligibility to work in Australia;
• payroll information such as bank account and payee details, tax file number, and superannuation fund details;
• hours worked, attendance records and leave requests;
• wage and benefits information, salary, allowances, or loadings;
• performance appraisals including details of disciplinary actions, probations, promotions, suspensions, or other performance measures;
• information related to complaints or disciplinary and/or investigation activities;
• when you participate in our workforce engagement programs e.g. rewards and recognition, opinion or onboarding surveys or exit interviews;
• collecting or generating information about you as you work e.g. monitoring your use of our electronic devices, systems, equipment, email and correspondence to ensure compliance with our policies;
• when you participate in alcohol and drug testing;
• details relating to a conflict of interest, if applicable;
• working from home related information;
• health information relevant to your employment e.g. if you have a disability or require additional support including if you apply for workplace adjustments;
  
• medical certificates, clinical notes or medical reports, including information related to your health and safety at work and any incidents, accidents or claims;
• images of you captured via CCTV security camera surveillance e.g. in Post Offices or access points to our premises;
• date of resignation or termination, reason for resignation or termination;
• emergency contact details; and
• information required by or authorised under law.  

You might need to give us information about other people, such as your next of kin, emergency contacts or referee details. We're relying on you to tell those people that you're giving us their details, and to let them know about this statement.

From others

Sometimes will need to collect, use or share information about you from third parties to undertake certain activities such as recruitment, pre-screening or ongoing suitability checks for employment, including:

• recruitment agencies;
• recruitment and employment checks, such as referees and former employers;
• academic and reference checks, results of competency or psychometric tests; 
• medical screenings/fitness and medical assessments; and
• criminal and background checks (including bankruptcy, banned or disqualified person and politically exposed persons searches).

On occasion we may collect information without your knowledge or consent such as when it’s necessary to investigate suspected unlawful activity or misconduct.

We may use or share your information with internal staff members or organisations who assist us in assessing your application and managing your employment e.g. external advisors, travel providers and the agents we use to carry out these functions and activities.

We may use or share your information for managing your employment relationship with us, including:

• determining eligibility for initial employment, including verifying references and qualifications;
• payroll processing including superannuation administration, deductions, novated lease, etc;
• internal recruitment, career and talent management;
• undertaking reviews of your performance;
• staff training and development; 
• workforce planning and personnel functions;
• providing you with the appropriate tools, equipment, systems, resources and access to support to carry out your tasks effectively and safely;
• building and security passes;
• monitoring and management of our leave program;
• processing corporate expenses and reimbursements;
• statistical and analytical purposes e.g. to understand and improve performance and for reporting purposes;
• regulatory reporting;
• processing workplace health, safety claims e.g. workers compensation, insurance claims;
• managing requests received under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) or the Privacy Act;
• general operations or to carry out other business activities when reasonably required; and
• contacting employees and emergency contacts where necessary.

There are certain circumstances when we may need to use or share your personal information with third parties for business purposes, including:

• professional advisors as required including legal, human resources, industrial relations, accounting  and insurance services providers;
• external service providers and advisors who help us run our business, including auditors and service providers;
• accounting, auditing, insurance, risk and compliance management activities;
• regulators during enquiries and investigations, and for reporting;
• monitoring your compliance with policies and procedures;
• conducting employee competitions and surveys;
• managing complaints or conducting disciplinary procedures or investigations;
• to investigate and respond to claims against us;
• fraud and security compliance investigations including detecting and managing suspected unlawful activity or misconduct;
• reporting and investigations of any workplace safety incidents or near misses;
• alcohol and drug testing;
• travel agents and suppliers of accommodation and travel services;
• in accordance with relevant Australia Post’s policies e.g. Performance and Conduct at Work Policy;
• managing resignations, terminations or redundancies;
• when you participate in outplacement services;
• to confirm the dates and nature of your employment in a statement on request;
• other purposes with your consent or at your request.

From time to time we may be required to share your information with other organisations including government agencies or regulatory bodies, as required, or permitted by law. For example health and safety or dispute resolution commissions (including Fair Work and Human Rights), Australian Tax Office, Centrelink, and/or to prevent serious harm to persons, property or our business interests or to assist in the location of a missing person.

We may monitor activities such as communications on work devices, as well as the access, use, and disclosure of customer, employee and company information. We may also monitor usage if you elect to use a work device for any personal use e.g. checking your Gmail, etc.

We may also collect, use or share your information if you elect to use your own personal device to connect to the company network and services.

Australia Post is proud to be one of Australia’s most diverse workforces and remains committed to promoting equal opportunity in employment and ensuring disadvantages and barriers are removed or minimised. 

You are not required to share your unique traits or characteristics, but you may choose to voluntarily provide diversity related data about yourself such as gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, country of origin, ancestry, caring responsibilities, and disability information.

This data will help us better understand the makeup of our workforce and continue to design and offer tailored programs and initiatives to support and develop a diverse workforce. We may use this information to notify you about relevant programs or support that may be of interest to you.  The information will also be used for aggregated statistics to meet our reporting obligation under the Equal Employment Opportunity (Commonwealth Authorities) Act 1987 including in Australia Post’s Annual Report. Access to this data will be held securely in our core HR systems and access to the information will be limited a small number of people within the People & Culture team. 

Australia Post’s Injury Management team may collect, use and share your information (including health related information) to assess and manage your workers’ compensation claim or any associated rehabilitation and to comply with our obligations under the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (SRC Act) and the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act). 

We may not be able to process your claim, determine your entitlements, or manage your rehabilitation until the information required has been received.  This includes information contained in workers’ compensation claim and rehabilitation records, health and safety records, and personnel records. 

Generally, we collect your information directly from you unless we are authorised to do so or required by law.  We may be required to seek information from people such as your treating health professional in connection to your claim.  If required, we may use our delegation under the SRC Act and arrange for you to undergo a medical examination.

How we use and share your injury management information

We may need to collect and share your information with a number of parties, including but not limited to, your People Leader, health professionals and your Workplace Rehabilitation Provider. In addition, we may use and share your information for conducting audits and reporting purposes to the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission and Comcare in accordance with our self-insurance license requirements. This includes using the contact details that you’ve provided when conducting mandatory customer satisfaction surveys to identify opportunities for improvement and enhance our injury management services.   We may also use your contact details to send system generated email and/or SMS notifications relating to correspondence and status updates about your claim and rehabilitation.

Accessing or correcting your injury management information

If you have a request relating to your claim and rehabilitation information, contact your Claims Manager or Rehabilitation Case Manager/Provider directly.  You can also request any document held by the Injury Management team that relates to your workers’ compensation claim and rehabilitation under section 59 of the SRC Act.

Resolving an injury management issue or complaint

To raise a concern or a complaint in relation to a claim or rehabilitation matter, email LCR@auspost.com.au or telephone 1300 783 066. Your email should reference your APS/employee number and claim number (if known).

Sometimes we may receive information that we haven't asked for.  If we think this information is needed or directly related to one or more of our functions or activities, we'll keep it securely like the rest of your information.  Otherwise, we will destroy it as soon as practical.

We know it is important that we handle your details carefully, responsibly and securely.

We hold employee information electronically and in hard copy form, both at our own premises and with the assistance of our external service providers who provide data storage, hosting and cloud computing services.  In all cases we implement a range of measures to protect and secure the information.  

We train our staff in how to keep your information safe and secure.  We use secure systems and buildings to hold your information. We have firewalls, intrusion detection and virus scanning tools to help prevent viruses, malware and unauthorised people accessing our systems. When we send electronic data to other organisations, we take steps to keep your personal information safe such as using secure networks or encryption.

Under the Privacy Act we are required to ensure that contracted service providers comply with the same privacy and data protection requirements applicable to us.

We aim to only keep your information for as long as we need it to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected or as required by applicable laws and regulatory requirements.  When no longer required, personal information is destroyed in a secure manner.  As a Government Business Enterprise, we are subject to the requirements of the  Archives Act 1983 which requires us to retain certain personnel records for 99 years from your birth date. 

Outside of Australia

The majority of Australia Post’s core systems and people are located in Australia, but we also have offices and staff located in other countries. Depending on where you are located your information may held in Australia or stored or accessed from offshore which may include the USA, United Kingdom, EU members, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, India and Malaysia. 

We also use trusted third parties to help manage our operations and services who may require access to your information.  As a result the countries listed may change depending on who we partner with, but we will do our best to update this document when this happens.  We only share information with third parties when we're satisfied that they have information security protections in place, whether that is in Australia or overseas.

Your information may also be stored electronically in networked or cloud storage, which could be accessible in countries outside Australia. But, as always, we take proper steps to secure and protect your information, wherever we are storing it.

We take all reasonable steps to make sure the information we collect, and store is accurate, up to date, complete, relevant and not misleading.

You may request access to the information we hold about you by contacting your People & Culture Business Partner/representative (for current staff) or by contacting our Privacy Team at privacy@auspost.com.au.

Please let us know if your personal details change, or if you notice any errors or discrepancies in the information we hold.  You can update your contact details using My Dashboard or refer to the Update your personal details guide.

You will be required to provide a written request if you wish to:

• request copies and examine the contents of your personnel file; or
• have any corrections made or additional material added to your file.

We will do our best to respond to your request within 30 days.  If it's going to take longer, we’ll get in touch to let you know why and ask for more time.

We may need to verify your identity when you make an access or correction request.  In some cases, we can refuse access or only give access to certain information, including when we are prohibited by law. If that happens, we will write to your explaining why and what other options may be available to you.

It is also possible to access, or correct documents held by us under the FOI Act. For more information, refer to the Employee Records Access module of the HR Manual or the Freedom of Informational and requests for personal information page on our website.