Safework Health is bound by the National Privacy Principles in the Commonwealth Privacy Act and by state and territory privacy laws.

Safework Health is committed to the right to privacy and the protection of personal and health information in accordance with privacy laws.

This policy applies to all employees at Safework Health.

This privacy policy explains how we manage the personal and health information of individuals. It also describes the sort of information we hold and why, as well as how that information is collected, held, used and disclosed.

Where it is lawful and practicable to do so, clients may deal with us anonymously (e.g. when inquiring about our services generally).

If an individual is to receive or has received a service from Safework Health, we will collect and hold their personal information to:

• gain an understanding of the individual’s needs so we may provide them with the required service and advice
• contact the individual to provide advice or information in relation to the way in which the service will be provided
• improve the quality of our service
• administer and manage those services including charging, billing and collecting debts
• or where required by law.

For Drug and Alcohol Testing, and Biological Health Surveillance, the information we primarily collect may include an individual’s:

• name
• date of birth
• occupation
• address (postal and email)
• telephone numbers
• current medication
• other information necessary for our functions and activities

For Occupational Health Services, the information collected may include an individual’s:

• name
• date of birth
• occupation
• address (postal and email)
• telephone numbers
• current medication, health history and medical records
• other information necessary for our functions and activities

For Employment Applications, work history, skills, tax details, references, and more.

We will, if reasonable and practicable to do so, collect personal and health information directly from the individual concerned. This may take place when the individual fills out documents such as a consent form or a chain of custody form or when the individual gives us personal and health information in person or over the telephone.

We may collect personal and health information from third parties such as:

• an individual’s representative (e.g. authorised representative, previous health professionals who has provided the individual with treatment or legal adviser).

We respect the value of your personal information and the Australian Privacy Principles as set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Whilst disclosure of your personal information is limited, we may disclose your personal information in certain circumstances, including though not limited to:

• management, funding, service-monitoring, planning, evaluation and complaint-handling
• legislative and regulatory compliance
• quality assurance or clinical audit activities
• accreditation activities
• billing and debt recovery
• where required by law, e.g. subpoenas, preparing the defence for anticipated or existing legal proceedings
• research or the compilation or analysis of statistics relevant to public health and safety
• activities directly related to the provision of health services to an individual where the individual would reasonably expect disclosure

We operate and communicate with organisations throughout Australia. Therefore some disclosures may occur outside the state or territory in which an individual is a resident, and in some circumstances, outside Australia. We will only disclose information to an organisation in a country that has a substantially similar privacy regime.

We store personal and health information in different ways, including in paper and electronic forms. The security of personal and health information is important to us and we take all reasonable steps to protect it from misuse or loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Some of the ways we do this include:

• requiring our staff to maintain confidentiality
• implementing document storage security
• imposing security measures for access to our computer systems
• providing a discreet environment for confidential discussions
• only allowing access to personal and health information where the individual seeking access to their information has satisfied our identification requirements
• personal and health information is retained for the period determined by the law and is disposed of securely.

Medical records are the property of Safework Health and/or our commercial customers. However, in accordance with the Australian Privacy Act 1988 Cth., individuals have a right to access their medical records, subject to certain exceptions, e.g:

• it may threaten the individual’s or someone else’s life, health or safety
• it may impact someone else’s privacy
• giving access would be unlawful.

Individuals can contact us at info@swhealth.com.au or present in person to our pre-employment medical centres to request access to personal and health information. Once the individual’s identity has been confirmed, Safework Health will respond to a request for access to their health information within 30 days.

The Safework Health process for requesting personal health record is provided below:

• Enquiry
• Health Record Request Form filled and ID verified
• Health record released by authorised person and copy to Quality Manager (maximum 30 working days)

Safework Health is committed to protecting online privacy. In general, visits to Safework Health’s website can be made without revealing any personal information.

Safework Health’s website contain links to websites operated by third parties. Safework Health has no control over the privacy policies and practices of such third–party sites. When following links to other sites from Safework Health’s website we recommend you read the privacy statement of that site to familiarise yourself with its privacy practices.

Email addresses provided will only be used to provide the requested service or response to specific user queries and will not be added to any mailing lists, nor disclosed to any other party without users’ knowledge and consent, unless required by law.

Safework Health may provide third parties with aggregate statistics about our visitors, traffic patterns and related site information. This data reflects site usage and does not contain personally identifiable information.

Individuals who believe we have breached their privacy rights in any way or wish to discuss any issues about our privacy policy should contact the Quality Manager who will try to satisfy any questions and correct any errors on our part. If the Quality Manager is not able to satisfactorily answer an individual’s concerns, the individual may contact the Safework Health Head Office on 1300 795 227. The individual also has the right to make a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner on telephone number 1300 363 992 or in writing to:

Office of The Privacy Commissioner
GPO Box 5288, Sydney NSW 2001

or via fax, by sending it to +61 2 6123 5145.

https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints/

Individuals may ask any questions about privacy and the way we manage personal and health information, complain about the handling of their information or obtain a form requesting access to personal and health information by contacting the Quality Manager on 1300 795 227 or at info@swhealth.com.au.