Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to us. This policy describes how SYPAQ discharges its responsibilities under the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012 (which amends the Privacy Act 1988), and in compliance with the Australian Privacy Principles (APP), in relation to the collection, storage and use of personal information about you and how you may exercise your rights to access such information.

SYPAQ only collects information that is reasonably necessary for the proper performance of our activities or functions.

SYPAQ manages personal information, as an APP Entity, under the Australian Privacy Principles.

Who will collect your personal and sensitive information?

Your personal and sensitive information will be collected by authorised employees of SYPAQ.

Types of personal information held by SYPAQ and when and how it is collected

Personal information includes information regarding your contact details, work experience, qualifications, aptitude test results, opinions about your work performance (e.g. reference checks), incidents at the workplace, and other information obtained or received by us in connection with your possible and actual work placements. Subject to the guidelines set out in APP 3, we collect personal information by lawful and fair means.

Specific personal information can include:

Personal contact details
Information contained in your resume
Educational qualifications
Other information about your qualifications for employment
Language proficiencies and other work-related skills
Employment history
Work performance information, i.e. reference and background checks
Date and place of birth
Australian work rights or visa credentials
Gender
Personal identification credentials – driver’s licence, passport etc.
Information about incidents in the workplace
Information in relation to absences from work due to leave, illness or other causes
Information obtained to assist in managing client and business relationships
Payroll and tax-related details
Bank account details
WorkCover related information
Information you provide regarding your career interests
AGSVA Clearance status
Emergency contact details
Any additional information you provide either during an interview or through subsequent contact

Sensitive information

Sensitive information is a special category of personal information under the Privacy Act. It is information or opinion about you, including membership of a professional or trade association or membership of a trade union; criminal record; health information, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, or sexual preferences or practices. As outlined in the Privacy Act, sensitive information can, in most cases, only be disclosed with your consent.

We may collect personal or sensitive information about you when:

You complete one of our registration or candidate details forms or provide any other information in connection with your application
You provide additional information either during an interview or through subsequent contact
We receive any reference about you
We receive work performance information including feedback from clients (whether positive or negative)
We receive any complaint or other information from or about you in the workplace
We receive results of inquiries that we might make of your former employers, work colleagues, professional associations or registration body
We receive the results of any competency test or background checks, including criminal record check when required
We receive any information about any insurance investigation, litigation, registration or professional disciplinary matter, criminal matter, inquest or inquiry in which you were involved
We receive any information about a workplace accident in which you are involved
We collect information about you from public domain sources

Purposes and use for which we collect personal information

Your personal and sensitive information may be used in connection with:

Providing you with job opportunities and work or the ability to provide services (for/of)
Assessing your suitability as a job candidate and your qualifications for project engagements
Providing payroll and administration services to you
Providing career guidance or management
Undertaking performance appraisals
Assessing your ongoing performance and prospects
Any test or assessment that you might be required to undergo
Identification of your training needs
Informing you of possible work opportunities or potential candidates, or other events such as information sessions or training
Any workplace rehabilitation
Management and resolution of any complaint, inquiry or investigation in which you are involved
Any insurance claim or proposal that requires disclosure of your personal or sensitive information
Undertaking criminal reference checks and other background checks, where required
Work, Health Safety risk management
Our direct marketing to you

Your personal and sensitive information may be disclosed to:

Potential and actual employers, as clients of SYPAQ, but only with your permission
Referees
External background checking agencies – e.g. criminal record checking or AGSVA clearance
Our insurers
A professional association or registration body that has a proper interest in the disclosure of your personal and sensitive information
A Workers Compensation body
Any person with a lawful entitlement to obtain the information

If you do not give us the information we seek:

We may be limited in our ability to employ you
We may be limited in our ability to locate suitable work for you and
We may be limited in our ability to place you in work

Management of personal information

SYPAQ’s staff are trained to respect the confidentiality of customer information and the privacy of individuals. SYPAQ takes any breach of your privacy very seriously and any breach will result in disciplinary action being taken, dependent upon severity. SYPAQ have appointed a Privacy Officer to ensure that our management of personal information is in accordance with this policy and the relevant Privacy Acts.

How do we store and protect personal information?

SYPAQ takes all reasonable steps to ensure personal information it holds is protected against misuse, interference and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Safeguarding the privacy of your information is important to us, whether you interact with us personally, by phone, mail, over the internet or other electronic medium. We hold personal information in a combination of secure computer storage facilities and paper-based files and other records within secure premises, and take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to protect the personal information we hold from misuse, interference and loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We may need to maintain records for a significant period of time. However, when we consider information is no longer needed, we will remove any details that will identify you or we will securely destroy the records.

Personal information is stored in the following ways:

Electronic copies of candidate information are stored in our application tracking system and hard copies are stored securely
Payroll information for temporary staff is entered in our financial management system at the commencement of assignment and hard copies of relevant paperwork are stored securely
CRM information that reflects a subset of information maintained in a candidate’s file is entered in our management systems
Some information may be stored on the internal network and/or cloud storage.

Overseas disclosure

We may disclose personal information to overseas third-party providers and suppliers for the sole purpose of providing our services to you. The overseas third-party providers and suppliers may be located in Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

How do we keep personal information accurate and up to date?

SYPAQ takes such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to ensure that the personal information it holds and discloses is accurate, up to date, complete, relevant and not misleading. We recognise that information changes frequently with changes of address and other personal circumstances. We generally update your information over the telephone or via email. Please advise your consultant when your personal details change. Please note that SYPAQ will not disclose your information for recruitment purposes without your express permission.

General information collected from visitors to our website

We gather information about all our website users collectively, such as what areas users visit more frequently and what services users access the most. We only use such data anonymously and in the aggregate. This information helps us determine what is most beneficial for our users, and how we can continually create a better overall website experience for you.

Complaints

We aim to acknowledge receipt of all complaints within 10 working days, and aim to resolve all complaints within 30 working days. This may not be possible in all circumstances depending on the contents of the complaint. In this situation, we will respond to your complaint in a reasonable time. If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, you can contact the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

Disclosures

We disclose personal information for a purpose for which it was collected (known as the ‘primary purpose’). We may also disclose personal information for a secondary purpose if a permitted situation applies. Subject to the guidelines set out in APP 6, we disclose personal information for the following purposes:

Recruitment activities
On-hire worker management
Client and business relationship management
Providing candidate details to prospective employers
Payroll, Taxation and Superannuation
Training and development activities

We disclose personal information where we are under a legal duty to do so, including circumstances where we are under a lawful duty of care to disclose such information. We disclose your personal information to:

Our insurers
A professional association or registration body that has a proper interest in the disclosure of your personal and sensitive information
A Workers Compensation body
Any government department or body
Any person with a lawful entitlement to obtain the information

We may disclose your personal information for any of the purposes for which it is primarily held or for a lawful related purpose.

We may disclose your personal information where we are under a legal duty to do so.

Access

Subject to some exceptions that are set out in the Australian Privacy Principles, you can gain access to the personal information that we hold about you.

To make a request to access your personal information, you will need to complete an application form verifying your identity and specifying what information you require. Please contact our Privacy Officer for an application form. We will respond to your request within a reasonable period after the request is made and provide access to the information in the manner requested, if it is reasonable and practicable to do so.

If we refuse to provide you with access to your personal information, we will notify you in writing of the reasons for the refusal and the process for escalation regarding this refusal.

Correction

You may request that we correct the personal information that we hold about you if you deem it to be inaccurate, incomplete, out-of-date, irrelevant or misleading. We will take reasonable steps under the circumstances to correct the information.

If we refuse to correct your personal information, we will notify you in writing of the reasons detailing our refusal to correct the information and the process for escalation regarding this refusal. Should we refuse you may ask us to place with the information a statement that the information is inaccurate, incomplete, out-of-date, irrelevant or misleading and we will take such reasonable steps under the circumstances to associate the statement with your information. If you wish to exercise your rights of correction you should contact our Privacy Officer for an application form. We will not charge you for making the request to correct your information, correcting the information, or associating a statement.