David Marin-Guzman reports:
The construction union is defending a novel workplace privacy case to fight employers allowing the sharing of workers’ personal information for marketing purposes.
Builder Watpac has called on the Fair Work Commission to arbitrate a dispute with the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union after a union safety delegate and a handful of workers refused to use the company’s new swipe-in app because of concerns over the security of health data.
Landmark decision
The system is run by 3D Safety, which holds employees’ names, contact details, next-of-kin and medical history on behalf of Watpac but whose privacy policy reserves the right to share data with third parties.
The case follows a landmark full bench decision last year on worker privacy that considered whether the employee, in that case, could refuse to use fingerprint scanners as part of his employer’s new sign-in system.
Read more on Financial Review.