The Albanese Government is seeking feedback on proposals to enhance private sector workers' privacy protections but employers are already warning that removing Privacy Act exemptions for employee records could create major problems.
The privacy watchdog has rejected a complaint that a pharmacy invaded a worker's privacy when it showed her employer CCTV footage proving she stole cosmetics while wearing her uniform.
The FWC has upheld a recruitment company's dismissal of a consultant who refused, as the coronavirus pandemic escalated in early March, to complete a survey about his recent history of travel to destinations with moderate to high COVID-19 risks.
ASX-listed Spotless Group Limited has been ordered to pay 14 former employees a total of $60,000 for breaching their privacy rights when disclosing their names to a union and paying their membership fees without authorisation.
Comcare has been ordered to pay $20,000 to a cancer-afflicted Defence employee whose privacy it breached after failing to properly protect her identity in a redacted report published online.
Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim has ordered the CBA to pay $10,000 to a former employee of one its mortgage innovation agencies and review its information handling policies after it improperly allowed an agency head to access her details while she pursued him for dismissing her.
A university has fended off a privacy claim after a tribunal found it wasn't responsible for the actions of two academics who sent emails that disclosed a complainant's health information as part of a response to an FWC bullying claim.
An employer was not obliged to immediately notify an employee it was accessing her Facebook messages or posts during a disciplinary investigation, Victoria's Supreme Court has confirmed in a decision clarifying the manner in which information privacy principles apply to social media.
Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim has ordered the Fair Work Commission to give the Nine Network the CCTV footage relied on by the SA Rail Commissioner in an unfair dismissal hearing, finding that it was not exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
Job candidates in Australia enjoy better privacy protection of their personal information than current or former employees, according to RMIT University's Professor Anthony Forsyth.
