Privacy statement

About Us

The Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia Ltd (ABN 43 008 597 304) ("COSBOA") has received funding from the Australian Government (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations) Fair Work Education and Information Program ("Program") under a funding agreement dated 4th August 2009 ("Funding Agreement") to deliver information and education to small businesses via the fairworkforsmallbusiness.com.au website ("Site").  COSBOA is delivering the Site in conjunction with its industry partners, Workforce Guardian Pty Ltd (ABN 80 122 113 624) ("Workforce Guardian") and Telstra Corporation Ltd (ABN 33 051 775 556) ("Telstra").

COSBOA, Workforce Guardian and Telstra are referred to throughout this Privacy Statement as "we", "us" or "our".

Our vision is to provide an interactive website and information portal that will be available to all Australian small and medium businesses, which will provide a 24-hour-7 day a week online reference point about the Federal workplace relations laws.  The aim of the Site is to educate and empower small and medium businesses about the changes to law and how it will affect them.  The Site will aim to be the one-stop-shop for information and education for small and medium business on the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).  We will use different mediums to educate and disseminate the information to you, including online webinars, multimedia guides, email newsletters and various interactive online tools.

We are committed to protecting your privacy, in accordance with our obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and this Privacy Statement explains how we collect, use and disclose your personal information through the Site.  This Privacy Statement may change from time to time.

Your personal information

Personal information is information about you, whether recorded in a material form or not, from which your identity could reasonably be ascertained.  The types of personal information we may collect include your name, address, telephone or mobile phone numbers, email addresses, company details, demographic information, the size and type of your business, and other information relevant to the business activities we undertake from time to time.

Occasionally, you may need to provide personal information about other individuals (e.g. your employees) to us.  If so, we rely on you to inform those individuals that you are providing their personal information to us and to ensure that they agree to such disclosure, and to advise them that we can be contacted for further information (see 'How to contact us' below).

Where we request that you provide your personal information and you elect not to provide it, we may not be able to provide the Site or some of its features to you.

How we collect your personal information

 

We collect personal information in a number of ways, including:

  • when you submit your personal details through our Site;
  • communications between you and us, including via email, telephone or in writing (for example surveys, feedback forms, registration for events, competitions and promotions, online inquiries);
  • your participation and contributions on this Site (for example, in discussions, forums, blogs, interviews, online education, webinars and use of interactive tools such as the online calculator guide);
  • when you visit or access our Site (see "This Site" below); and
  • from publicly available sources of information;
  • from the organisations identified under 'When we disclose your personal information'; and
  • when legally required to do so.

Information is collected, wherever possible, from you directly.  We will collect your personal information lawfully, fairly and without undue intrusion.  At the time your personal information is collected, we will take reasonable steps to advise you whether there are any consequences of not providing that information.

This Site

When you visit the Site, web servers will record information such as the time, date, URL and IP address of your request.  This information assists us to improve the structure of the Site and monitor its performance.  From time to time we may also use third parties to analyse this anonymous information.

We may use 'cookies' on various parts of this Site.  Cookies are an industry standard and most major websites use them.  A cookie is a small text file that our Site may place on your computer.  Usually, cookies are used as a means for this Site to remember your preferences and also collect statistical information each time a user accesses the Site (e.g. the number of visits to the Site, documents viewed, how the Site is navigated and the type of search engine used to arrive at the Site, viewing patterns). As such, cookies are designed to improve your experience of our Site.  In some cases, cookies may collect and store personal information about you.  We extend the same privacy protection to your personal information, whether gathered via cookies or from other sources. You can adjust your Internet browser to disable cookies or warn you when cookies are being used.  However, if you disable cookies, you may not be able to access certain areas of our Site or take advantage of the improved website experience that cookies offer.

We may also use a variety of other web monitoring technologies (via third party service providers) to gather information to assist in improving the Site and making it more user-friendly. These technologies include clickstream data and web beacons.

We also collect Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. IP addresses are assigned to computers on the internet to uniquely identify them within the global network.  We collect and manage IP addresses for security purposes.

You may be able to disable or avoid using some of these technologies by adjusting your Internet browser settings, though doing so may prevent you from taking advantage of improvements to the Site.  Importantly, at no time can individual users be identified from the data collected via these means.

The Site may contain links to various other third party sites.  We are not responsible for the content and the privacy practices of other websites and do not endorse or authorise the content of any third party websites.  We encourage you to examine each site's privacy policy and make your own decisions about providing personal information whilst visiting those sites.

How we use your personal information

Your personal information may be used to:

  • provide the Site to you (including to verify your identity and assist you to access the Site);
  • communicate with you regarding the Program and the Site, including to inform you of new discussions, materials, information, news, Site features and events relating to the Site;
  • research, develop and improve the Site and our services;
  • send you information and updates about our initiatives, events and services and provide you information, news and updates relating to the Federal workplace relations laws and the Program.

Also, your personal information is collected so that we can keep you informed of initiatives, events, products, services and special offers that we think may be of interest to small and medium businesses, even after you cease to use the Site or after we cease to provide the Site to you.  If you do not wish us  (or some of us) to contact you, please email unsubscribe@fairworkforsmallbusiness.com.au.

When we disclose your personal information

 

In some cases we may disclose your personal information to other organisations. Your personal information will be disclosed to these organisations in relation to the operation, administration and maintenance of this Site and the administration of the Program.  These organisations may carry out:

  • mailing operations;
  • market research;
  • marketing, telemarketing and door-knocking services;
  • activities that assist us to provide the Site to you;
  • information technology services (such as hosting); or
  • website usage analysis.

We take reasonable steps to ensure that these organisations are bound by confidentially and privacy obligations in relation to the protection of your personal information.

In addition, we may disclose your personal information to:

  • our professional advisers, including our accountants, auditors and lawyers;
  • the Commonwealth, in accordance with the terms of the Funding Agreement;
  • government and regulatory authorities and other organisations, as required or authorised by law;
  • our related bodies.

Help us to ensure we hold accurate information

We take all reasonable precautions to ensure that the personal information we collect, use and disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date.  However, the accuracy of that information depends to a large extent on the information you provide. That is why we recommend that you let us know if there are any errors in your personal information and keep us up-to-date with changes to your personal information such as your name or address.

While we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information transmitted to us online.

You can access your personal information

You have a right to access your personal information, subject to some exceptions allowed by law.  If you would like to do so, please let us know.  Your request will need to be in writing and sent to privacy@fairworkforsmallbusiness.com.au.  You may be charged a fee for us to search for and provide access to your information.

How to contact us

 

If you have any questions relating to privacy, please contact privacy@fairworkforsmallbusiness.com.au.