The Fair Work Commission takes its privacy obligations seriously.
The Commission collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).
The Commission’s Privacy policy sets out the types of personal information that are collected by the Commission and how Commission Members and staff collect, hold, use and disclose personal information.
Read the Commission’s full Privacy policy.
This summary provides a short overview of how the Commission handles personal information. It is not intended to replace the Commission’s Privacy policy.
The Commission collects and handles personal information in exercising its powers and performing its functions and activities, including in:
The Commission generally collects information directly from the individual concerned or their authorised representative. In some circumstances, the Commission may collect personal information from third parties, including where:
For more information, see the Collection of personal information section of the Privacy policy.
The Commission uses and discloses personal information for the primary purpose for which it was collected. For example, the Commission will usually disclose the personal information it collects from a party to a Commission matter to any other party (or their representative), for the purpose of dealing with the matter.
As the national workplace relations tribunal, Commission hearings are generally open to the public and, subject to limited exceptions, its decisions are published on its website. The Commission also publishes personal information on its website for the purposes of dealing with applications made to the Commission. For example, the Commission publishes hearings lists on its website which generally include the names of the parties, the type of application, and the time and date of hearings.
The Commission uses or discloses personal information for secondary purposes in circumstances permitted by the Privacy Act, such as where the individual has consented to this or the use or disclosure is required or authorised by or under an Australian law or court or tribunal order.
For more information, see the Use and disclosure of personal information section of the Privacy policy. For information about when the Commission may disclose information on a Commission case file, see the Access to case file documents policy.
Individuals may seek access to personal information held about them and can request that the Commission amend or annotate their personal information. For more information, see the Accessing and correcting personal information section of the Privacy policy.
Individuals may make a complaint about the handling of their personal information by the Commission. For more information, see the Complaints section of the Privacy policy.
Read the Commission’s full Privacy policy.
The Access to case file documents policy sets out when access may be granted to documents on a Commission case file.
This Policy is currently under review.
Access to documents on a case file is at the discretion of the Commission.
For open files, access to documents on a case file is subject to the consent of the presiding Member.
For closed files, an application under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Fair Work Act) and its accompanying file (including any material in the Commission’s case management system) are generally available for inspection by the parties to the proceedings and the public.
Exceptions to this include:
The above applications and the accompanying case file (including material in the Commission’s case management system) are not available for inspection, other than by a person who is a party named in the application (or their nominated representative).
In addition, for applications under s.576(2)(aa) of the Fair Work Act, consent of all parties named in the application is required before the application and the accompanying case file will be made available for inspection.
For all case files, access will not be granted to any documents that are:
In some instances, personal or other information may be redacted from documents before they are released.
Where access to a case file or documents contained in the file is refused, a person may make an application to access the file or documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act). Further information about how the Commission handles requests under the FOI Act is available on the Freedom of Information page on the Commission's website.
Section 6 of the Privacy policy, Use and disclosure of personal information, sets out other circumstances in which the Commission may use or disclose personal information held on Commission case files.