Workplace Privacy Policy

This Workplace Privacy Policy template provides a comprehensive and fully functioning policy for your employees to understand the expectations around the practices of collecting personal information.

The Workplace Privacy Policy template includes:

• A general overview including scope, application and purpose of the policy
• The types of personal information that is collected
• Collection of personal information
• Employment records
• Storage and security
• Access to personal information
• Organisation policies and procedures

Why does your business need a Workplace Privacy Policy?

If you collect employee personal information, you should have a Workplace Privacy Policy in place to explain how you use, collect, hold and disclose personal information of your employees.

In Australia, how your business collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information is governed by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”). The Privacy Act generally applies to businesses that have an annual turnover of more than $3 million and some other specific organisations (including health providers).\n\nDepending on your business, you may also be required to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) which applies to the processing of personal data or data subjects who are in the EU.

Under the Privacy Act, employee personal information is any information that identifies an employee. For example, this includes, but is not limited to:

• sensitive information including an individual's race or ethnic origin, political opinion, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or criminal record, provided the information otherwise meets the definition of personal information
• health information
• credit information
• employee record information (subject to exemptions)
• tax file number information.

However, the Privacy Act includes an exemption from the regulations around how businesses collect, hold, use and disclose personal information for employee records. The exemption means that your business may collect personal information from your employees for the purpose of keeping employee records and managing their employment.

However, your business must be careful to not use your employee’s personal information for purposes that are not directly related to their employment or you may be in breach of the Privacy Act.

We recommend implementing the Business Kitz Workplace Privacy Policy to clarify with your employees how you collect and use their personal information for the purposes of employee records and managing their employment, to assist your business to avoid breaching the Privacy Act.