Fair Work Commission

Collection of your personal information

The Fair Work Commission collects information, including personal information that you provide about yourself and others, when you:

• make an inquiry
• apply for access to information under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) or Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act), or
• make a submission in relation to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

The Commission collects this information for the purpose of dealing with your inquiry or processing your request or submission under the FOI Act or the Privacy Act.

If you apply for access to information under the FOI Act or Privacy Act, the Commission may collect personal information about you from third parties, for example, if the party makes a submission in response to a consultation process regarding your FOI request.

Generally, you are not required to provide your name to the Commission when making an inquiry or application under the FOI Act or Privacy Act. For example, you may choose to remain anonymous or use a pseudonym. However, in some circumstances your personal information will be required to properly deal with your inquiry or application. The consequences for you if the Commission did not collect your personal information for the above purposes may include that:

• the Commission would not be able to deal with your inquiry or application under the FOI Act or Privacy Act because it would lack the necessary information 
• the Commission would not be able to take your submission into consideration in the decision to release documents under the FOI Act.

If you have not provided any contact details, the Commission:

• would not be able to contact you to respond to your inquiry
• would not be able to treat your application as a valid FOI request because the FOI Act requires that the request give details of how notices under the FOI Act may be sent to the applicant (for example, by providing an email address). 

Disclosure of your personal information

Where practicable, the Commission will not disclose personal information you provide in your inquiry or FOI request to external entities. The Commission will also take steps to limit the amount of personal information about you that is disclosed as part of any consultation process regarding your FOI request.

If you provide a submission in response to a consultation process under the FOI Act, the Commission may disclose personal information you provide in your submission as part of the access decision required to be provided to the FOI applicant.

The Commission may disclose personal information about you when it is required or authorised to do so pursuant to:

• a court or tribunal order for production of documents
• an Australian law (for example, disclosure under the FOI Act).

Generally, we do not send your personal information overseas.  However, in limited circumstances, we may be required to disclose your personal information to an FOI applicant or third party that is outside Australia. The Commission's Privacy Policy contains information about how the disclosure of your personal information overseas will occur.

Accessing your personal information

The Commission’s Privacy policy contains information about how you and other individuals can access personal information that is held by the Commission and seek correction of such information.

Complaints

The Commission's Privacy policy contains information about how you and other individuals can complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles, and how the Commission will deal with the complaint.