HR Data Protection Laws

HR data protection laws in Australia are treated as a single privacy question and they are not.

Federal privacy law governs the handling of personal information and includes the notifiable data breach scheme. It also contains an employee records exemption whose scope is narrower than most people assume, and which does not remove the obligation to handle staff information carefully.

State and territory workplace surveillance legislation applies separately to computer monitoring, cameras and vehicle tracking.

Health records legislation in some states applies to health information held about employees.

Record-keeping obligations under workplace relations law require certain records to be kept and produced regardless of any of the above.

Take advice on how the exemption applies to you rather than relying on a summary of it.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner publishes the Australian Privacy Principles. This is general information rather than legal advice, and obligations vary by state and territory.

See Sentrient’s privacy training course and records management software.