Protecting your privacy
At Medacs Healthcare Australia Pty Ltd (Medacs) your privacy is important to us. We are committed to ensuring that your privacy is respected and maintained at all times. Medacs Healthcare complies with the Privacy Laws and the National Privacy Principles as well as our existing obligations of confidentiality.
This Privacy / Collection Statement explains how we collect personal information and how we maintain, use and disclose that information. It also provides some detail about your privacy rights along with our general rights and obligations in relation to the personal information we keep
on record.
What your personal information is
Personal information is any information or an opinion about you. It may range from the very sensitive (eg medical history or condition) to the everyday (eg name, address and phone number). It would include the opinions of others about your work performance, your work experience and qualifications, aptitude and psychological assessment results and other information obtained by us in connection with your possible work placements. Personal information includes sensitive information.
What sensitive information is
Sensitive information is a special category of personal information. It is information or an opinion about your:
- racial or ethnic origin
- political opinion
- membership of a political association or religious beliefs, affiliations or philosophical beliefs
- membership of a professional or trade association or membership of a trade union
- sexual preferences or practices
- criminal record
- health or disability (at any time)
- expressed wishes about the future provision of health services.
It includes personal information collected to provide a health service.
Sensitive information can, in most cases, only be disclosed with your consent. We do not actively seek to collect sensitive information unless it is necessary for our business purposes. If we do have to collect sensitive information, we will do so in accordance with the National Privacy Principles.
Who will be collecting your personal and sensitive information
Your personal and sensitive information will be collected by Medacs Healthcare for its own use and on behalf of others who might require access to your personal and sensitive information in connection with your work placements.
How your information will be collected – attending an interview
Personal and sensitive information will be collected from you during the interview process with one of our staff members. At this time you will complete our registration paperwork or any other information in connection with your application to us for registration.
Personal and sensitive information will also be collected when:
- we receive any reference about you
- we receive results of inquiries that we might make with your former employers, work colleagues, professional associations or registration body
- we receive the results of your work rights status
- we receive the results of any competency or medical test
- we receive performance feedback (whether positive or negative)
- we receive any complaint from or about you in the workplace
- we receive any information about a workplace accident in which you are involved
- we receive a response from a job advertisement – either written, verbal or email
- we receive any information about any insurance investigation, litigation, registration or professional disciplinary matter, criminal matter, inquest or inquiry in which you are involved
- you provide us with any additional information about you.
How your information will be collected - Visiting our website
You can visit our web site and browse without the need to disclose any personal information.
No attempt is made by Medacs Healthcare to identify users or their browsing activities. We may add cookies to your device to enhance your exprience of the site.
If you visit the Candidate Registration section of our web site and register on-line for employment opportunities, we do collect some personal information about you, which you volunteer by filling in your details. The information required may include providing basic personal details such as your name, address, phone number and email address etc. You may also submit your resume. The information gathered at this point is stored in our database for retrieval and use by Medacs staff only for the purposes for which it was intended. By submitting your personal information in this way, you acknowledge and accept our Privacy / Collection Statement.
At times you may forward an email to us via the email link in our web site. The information collected through this email will only be used for the purpose for which you have provided it. Your details will not be added to our database, unless specified by you, nor will we disclose or use your information for any other purpose, than the intended purpose.
How your information may be used
Your personal and sensitive information may be used in connection with:
- your actual or possible work placement
- checking your work rights status with any government department or body (or their agents)
- payment for work completed on a temporary/contract assignment
- follow up with you to offer you work or ascertain your availability for work
- your performance appraisals
- our assessment of your ongoing performance and prospects
- any test or assessment (including medical tests and assessments) that you might be required to undergo
- our identification of your training needs;
- any workplace rehabilitation
- our management of any complaint, investigation or inquiry in which you are involved
- any insurance claim or proposal that requires disclosure of your personal or sensitive information
- ensuring our internal business processes are running smoothly which may include quality assurance audits, quality and services, evaluations, fulfilling legal requirements and conducting confidential systems maintenance and testing.
Your personal and sensitive information may be disclosed to
- potential and actual employers and clients of Medacs Healthcare
- referees
- 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 (or their agents) to verify your work rights status
- our contractors and suppliers – eg our I.T. contractors and database designers
- any person with a lawful entitlement to obtain the information.
We will advise you of our intentions and gain consent before we refer your personal information to our clients for possible work opportunities.
If you do not give us the information we seek
If you do not give us the information we seek:
- we may be limited in our ability to locate suitable work for you;
- we may be limited in our ability to place you in work.
How does Medacs Healthcare protect the security of your information?
We take all reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification and disclosure.
We have a number of safety measures in place to protect your information. For example, your personal information is stored in secured offices and in computerised databases which require a log in and password to gain access. Access to the database is only available to those who require such access. All staff are bound by a confidentiality agreement regarding company and customer information.
Visitors to our premises are always accompanied by a member of staff for the duration of the visit.
We use secure methods to destroy or de-identify personal information as soon as the law permits and provided that the information is no longer needed by us. When you advise us that you are no longer looking for work opportunities and therefore do not wish to be registered with us, we will de-identify your data base record and destroy your personal information, unless you advise us otherwise or unless it is a requirement by law such as retained tax/wages information.
You can gain access to your information to correct it if it is wrong
Subject to some exceptions which are set out in the National Privacy Principles (Principle 6 – Access and Correction), you have a right to see and have a copy of personal and sensitive information about you that we hold.
If you are able to establish that personal or sensitive information that we hold about you is not accurate, complete and up-to-date, we will take reasonable steps to correct it so that it is accurate, complete and up-to-date.
If we are unable to agree that personal or sensitive information that we hold about you is accurate, complete and up-to-date, you may ask us to place with the information a statement by you that claims that particular information is not accurate, complete and up-to-date.
If you wish to exercise your rights of access and correction you should contact our Privacy Officer whose details are shown below.
In some cases we may impose a moderate charge for providing access to personal or sensitive information. We will not charge you simply because you lodge a request for access.
External sites
External sites that are linked to or from the Medacs Healthcare website are not under our control and you are advised to review their Privacy Statement. Users should note there are inherent risks associated with the transmission of information via the Internet and you should therefore make your own assessment of the potential risk to the security of your information.
Changes to our privacy policy
If at any time our privacy policy changes, the updated details will always be available on our web site for your perusal. If at any time you have a question or concern regarding Medacs Healthcare and privacy, please contact us.
How to contact us
If you wish to contact us about your personal or sensitive information you should contact:
Brian Hill
Email: brian@medacs.com.au
