Privacy
Overview
Privacy is the most rapidly developing area of law affecting employment practitioners. Privacy issues directly and indirectly impact on most employment situations.
In Australia there is a patchwork of federal, state and territory privacy laws which apply to public and private sector, including:
- national privacy laws cover the handling of personal information, but do not apply to 'employee records'
- state and territory laws regulate surveillance devices, including video-recorders, still cameras, tape recordings, data tracking devices and internet and email monitoring
- select state and territory laws regulate the handling of health information
- in addition, additional legislation regulates the collection, storage and use of information such as time and wages records, superannuation information and workers compensation information.
The challenge for HR practitioners is to be able to synthesise the patchwork of laws to ensure their organisation complies with the law and manages concerns which arise effectively.