Privacy Policy

1.0 Introduction

This is the Privacy Policy of Plumbing and Pipe Trades Entitlement Fund Limited ABN 60 646 380 494 (PPTEF, we, us, our), which acts as Trustee for the Plumbing and Pipe Trades Entitlement Fund Trust (the Fund).

PPTEF is committed to protecting the privacy and the security of your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

This Privacy Policy describes our policies and practices for collecting, storing, handling, using, and disclosing your personal information. It also explains how you may complain about a breach of the privacy laws and how we will deal with such complaints, how you can access the personal information we hold about you and how to have that information corrected.

PPTEF have outsourced the administration of the Fund to the Redundancy Payment Central Fund Ltd ABN 97 007 133 833 (Incolink).

2.0 Who we are & what do we do?

PPTEF's function is to operate the Fund. Our services are available to our employer and worker members, and key industry stakeholders.

Incolink is a joint enterprise of employer associations and industry unions in the commercial building, construction and civil allied industries in Victoria and Tasmania. One of Incolink's functions is to administer the Fund on behalf of PPTEF. All references in this policy to PPTEF and associated pronouns include Incolink.

3.0 What is personal information?

Personal information includes any information or opinion about you or information from which you can be reasonably identified by others. The information or opinion will still be personal information whether it is true or not and regardless of whether we have kept a record of it. Personal information may include things such as your name, address, contact details, date of birth, government issued identifiers (such as 
your tax file number, Medicare number or driver's licence number), and bank account details. It also includes Sensitive Information.

Sensitive information includes, without limitation, details of your religious beliefs, membership of a trade union and health information.

4.0 Collection of personal information

We will not collect personal information unless the information is necessary for one or more of our functions or activities. In order to perform our functions, we may need to collect information about you, including whether or not you are a member of a trade union. By agreeing to this Privacy Policy, you consent to PPTEF collecting information about you, either from you, your employer or other third parties, where collecting that information is reasonably necessary for PPTEF to perform one or more of our functions or activities.

We will only collect personal information by lawful and fair means and not in an unreasonably intrusive manner. PPTEF will collect information about you directly from you, where and when it is reasonable and practicable to do so. However, you acknowledge and agree that PPTEF may collect personal information about you from third parties, such as your employer. Where PPTEF collects personal information about you from a third party, reasonable steps will be taken to ensure that you are made aware of how to contact PPTEF to access your information, the purposes for which the information is collected, the types of organisations to which information is usually disclosed and any law that requires the particular information to be collected. 

Personal information collected by PPTEF includes, but is not limited to:

• Name and address;
• Telephone number(s);
• Date of birth;
• Email address;
• Occupation;
• Tax File Number (TFN); and
• Memberships to other organisations such as unions and/or any other representative associations or bodies.

PPTEF may also collaborate, work in partnerships, enter into joint ventures or such other legal relationships with third parties (collectively Arrangements) in respect of the Fund's services and generally in furtherance of the administration of the Fund. As part of these functions, detailed personal and sensitive information may be collected and/or you may be asked to provide personal information for the purposes mentioned above. If you do not provide this additional personal information, PPTEF may be unable to properly provide the services and/or administer the Fund through the Arrangements, which may affect your entitlements or benefits under the Fund. See clause 8 below on other circumstances where we disclose your personal information.

4.1 Sensitive information

In order to provide the range of services to you, the information we collect from you may include sensitive information. We will only collect sensitive information about you if it is reasonably necessary for our business functions and activities. For example, we may collect voice or facial biometric information to verify your identity or authorise payments.

We collect sensitive information in the same way that we collect personal information, which is outlined in this Policy. In addition, we may collect sensitive information indirectly from third parties you deal with, for example in relation to your health information, from a health practitioner (such as a psychologist or physiotherapist). We only hold, use and disclose sensitive information about you for our purposes and functions. We may need to collect use and disclose sensitive information about you so that we can best provide these services, manage our relationship with you, deal with your enquiries and concerns.

This may include disclosing to third parties, for example those that provide services to us such as legal, accounting, insurance underwriters and brokers government agencies, law enforcement bodies, courts and other dispute resolution processes.

5.0 What if you choose not to provide information to us?

We may be unable to provide our products or services to you where we do not have all the relevant information, we require to deliver such products or services.

5.1. Anonymity and pseudonymity

Where practical, you may deal with us anonymously or using a pseudonym. The majority of our services, however, will require collection of your personal information to allow us to provide you with the appropriate products, services or responses.

6.0 For what purpose do we hold, use and disclose personal information

PPTEF may hold, use, or disclose personal information for the primary purpose for which it was collected. Typically, this will include administering the Fund that PPTEF manages, managing your membership details and making any payment which you may become entitled to receive. If PPTEF holds, uses or discloses personal information for a purpose other than the primary purpose for which it was collected (the secondary purpose), PPTEF will ensure that the secondary purpose is related to the primary purpose of collection (and directly related in the case of sensitive information), and you would reasonably expect that PPTEF would hold, use or disclose the personal information in that way:

• you have consented to the use or disclosure of the personal information for the secondary purpose;
• use or disclosure is required or authorised by law; or
• the use or disclosure is otherwise permitted by the Act.

7.0 How do we hold personal information?

PPTEF strives to maintain the relevance, reliability, accuracy, completeness, and currency of the personal information we hold, and to protect its privacy and security. Much of the information PPTEF holds about you will be stored electronically in secure data centres, which are located in Australia, and owned by either PPTEF or an external service provider. This does not include third parties backing up or mirroring their data in overseas jurisdictions. Some of your personal information will be stored in paperfiles, which will be held in secure offsite storage. 

PPTEF may disclose your personal information or sensitive information to third parties located outside of Australia (see clause 8.2. for further information). PPTEF takes reasonable physical and electronic security measures to protect the security of the personal information held, including but not limited to:

• ensuring that the personal information that it collects is accurate, complete and up to date;
• protecting personal information it holds from misuse, interference and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure;
• destroying or permanently de-identify personal information if it is no longer needed for any purpose for which the information may be used or disclosed under the Act or any other applicable law;
• all staff being required to complete training about information security; and
• regular monitoring and review of compliance with internal policies and industry best practice.

8.0 Who does PPTEF disclose personal information to, and why?

In order to operate the Fund, to ensure that the purposes of the Fund can be fulfilled including the various purposes mentioned above (see clause 4), PPTEF may disclose personal information that it holds in relation to you. Specifically, PPTEF may disclose personal information held by PPTEF about members to organisations including, but not limited to:

• Incolink;
• Principal contractors on building sites;
• Union representatives (including shop stewards);
• Employer association representatives;
• Insurers (and their claims handling agents);
• Employer members of PPTEF;
• Government bodies including, but not limited to, the ATO, Centrelink and the Child Support Agency;
• Third party service providers including, but not limited to, printing companies and document disposal agencies;
• Third parties who PPTEF deals with or engages to provide certain services or product offerings to members and may wish to provide related services or product offerings independently of PPTEF;
• Any third parties including without limitation any of the parties listed above that may be a party to the Arrangements and who may use the information PPTEF discloses as part of the arrangement for that other party's own purposes; and
• Any other third parties that PPTEF enters into an agreement with for any purposes that PPTEF considers may benefit you.

PPTEF may also disclose personal and sensitive information if it believes that there is a serious and imminent threat to an individual's life, health, or safety if there is or a serious threat to public health or public safety.

8.1 Third party disclosure

Where third parties are involved, PPTEF will ensure that they become aware of and require them to abide by PPTEF's Privacy Policy.

PPTEF may disclose your personal information to external organisations. To protect your personal information, we enter into agreements with our service providers that require them to comply with the Privacy Act and to only use the personal information we disclose to them for the specific role we ask them to perform.

We may also disclose your personal information to others, where:

• We are required or authorised by law or where they have a public duty to do so;
• you have expressly consented to the disclosure or the consent may be reasonably inferred from the circumstances; or
• we are otherwise permitted to disclose the information under the Privacy Act.

8.2 Overseas disclosure

PPTEF may disclose your personal information to a recipient that is located outside Australia. Any overseas disclosure does not affect our commitment to safeguarding your personal information and we will take reasonable steps to ensure any overseas recipient of your personal information complies with Australian privacy law.

PPTEF will not send your personal information to recipients outside of Australia unless:

• We have taken reasonable steps to ensure that the recipient does not breach the Privacy Act, including the APPs;
• the recipient is subject to an information privacy scheme similar to the Privacy Act; or
• the individual has consented to the disclosure.

9.0 Do we use or disclose personal information for marketing?

PPTEF also use personal information that we hold about you to send you details of promotional offers and special events that we believe may interest you but will not do so if you tell us not to.

By providing your personal information to PPTEF (or by providing your personal information to a third party to provide to PPTEF), you consent to:

• the use and disclosure of your personal information by PPTEF to send you details of promotional offers and special events that it believes may be of interest to you; and
• the use and disclosure of your personal information for the purpose of direct marketing by any third parties that PPTEF has an agreement with and provided PPTEF reasonably believes that the direct marketing by those third parties may be of benefit to you.

You may withdraw your consent to receiving direct marketing materials from PPTEF or a third party at any time. If you do not wish to receive direct marketing materials from PPTEF or a third party, you must expressly contact our Privacy Officer using the contact details provided below and request not to receive direct marketing materials from PPTEF or the relevant third party in the future. Alternatively, you can use the ‘unsubscribe‘ function found at the bottom of any direct marketing emails that either PPTEF or a third party send to you, in which case your name will be removed from the relevant email distribution list.

10.0 European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

If you are a member of the Fund and you reside in a country that is a member of the European Economic Area, in addition to the protection you receive under the Privacy Act, you are entitled to other protections provided by the GDPR, including in certain circumstances, the right to:

• Have your personal information erased;
• access your personal information in an electronic and portable format; or
• restrict or object to the processing of your personal information.

11.0 Access to and correction of personal information

At any time, you may request access to any personal information that PPTEF holds about you. PPTEF will respond to your requests for access to your personal information within a reasonable time. You may request access to your personal information in a particular manner (such as by having a copy of the personal information that PPTEF holds about you, emailed, or posted to you). PPTEF will endeavour to comply with such a request if it is reasonable and practicable to do so.

PPTEF will generally allow you to access personal information it holds about you, where practicable. If you believe that any personal information that PPTEF holds about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant, or misleading, you must expressly request that PPTEF correct this information. PPTEF will respond to your requests for correction of your personal information within a reasonable time. PPTEF will take reasonable steps to correct any personal information that it holds about you, which PPTEF agrees is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant, or misleading. 

Requests for access to, or correction of, any personal information that PPTEF holds about you must be expressly made by contacting PPTEF's Privacy Officer using the contact details provided in clause 16 of this document. 

There may be some situations where PPTEF may not allow you to access personal information that it holds about you or may refuse to correct personal information. In these situations, PPTEF will provide you with reasons for this decision and will provide you with information about the mechanisms available to you to challenge the refusal. Additionally, where PPTEF declines to correct any personal information that it holds about you, you may request that PPTEF associate with the information a statement that you claim that the information is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. PPTEF will then take reasonable steps to associate such a statement with your personal information. 

Depending on the circumstances, a small administrative charge may apply for costs involved in providing you with access to personal information about you. PPTEF will not charge you for making a request to access your personal information or for correcting your personal information.

12.0 Users of our website

If you visit'¯https://plumbersfund.org.au/ (website) to read, browse or download information, our system may record information such as the date and time of your visit to the website, the pages accessed and any information downloaded. This information is used for statistical, reporting and website administration and maintenance purposes only.

Like many websites, our website may use ‘cookies‘ from time to time. Cookies are small text files that we transfer to your computer's hard drive through your web browser to enable our systems to recognise your browser. Cookies may also be used to record non-personal information such as the date, time or duration of your visit, or the pages accessed, for website administration, statistical and maintenance purposes. Any such information will be aggregated and not linked to particular individuals. The default settings of browsers like Internet Explorer always allow cookies, but users can easily erase cookies from their hard-drive, block all cookies, or receive a warning before a cookie is stored. Please note that some parts of the website may not function fully for users that disallow cookies. 

While we take great care to protect your personal information on our website, unfortunately no data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be fully secure. Accordingly, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you send to us or receive from us online. This is particularly true for information you send to us via email or by submitting information using the website. We have no way of protecting that information until it reaches us. PPTEF will not be liable in any way in relation to any breach of security or unintended loss or disclosure of information due to the website being linked to the internet. 

The website may contain links to other sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices, policies, or content of those sites.

13.0 Notification of Eligible Data Breaches

Due to the Privacy Amendment (Notifiable Data Breaches) Act (Cth) 2017, we are legally required to notify you of any eligible data breaches. To comply with this legal requirement, we have implemented a Data Breach Response Plan in order to deal with actual or potential data breaches as well as the notification process to be followed when notifying you.

14.0 Complaints Process

If you believe that your privacy has been breached, please contact us using the details below and provide details of the incident so that we can investigate it.

Our procedure for investigating and dealing with privacy breaches is as follows: 
'¢ complaints should be made in writing and submitted to the Privacy Officer using the details below; 
'¢ we will treat your complaint confidentially. The Privacy Officer, or his or her nominated representative, will investigate your complaint and contact you within a reasonable time after receipt of your complaint to discuss your concerns and outline options regarding how they may be resolved; 
'¢ we will aim to ensure that your complaint is resolved within a reasonable time and in an appropriate manner with which you are satisfied; and 
'¢ if you are not satisfied with our response or our proposed resolution of your complaint, then you may lodge a formal privacy complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). 

The OAIC can be contacted at 
Post: Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001 
Phone: 1300 363 992 
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au 
Website:'¯www.oaic.gov.au

15.0 Miscellaneous

In this Policy 'personal information‘ and ‘sensitive information‘ have the same meaning as under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). This Policy represents our Policy as at March 2021. We may change this Policy (including the way we handle personal information) from time to time for any reason, including to comply with the Act, by posting the amended policy on our website. The amended policy will be effective upon being posted on this website. Please check our website regularly to ensure that you have the most recent version of the Policy. Although we intend to observe this Policy at all times, it is not legally binding on PPTEF in any way. From time to time, we may regard it as necessary or desirable to act outside the Policy. We may do so, subject only to any statutory rights you have under the Act or other applicable legislation.

16.0 Contact Details

If you have any questions concerning how PPTEF handles personal information, or if you wish to gain access to or correct any personal information about you held by PPTEF, or if you have any concerns or a complaint regarding the treatment of your personal information or a possible breach of your privacy, please contact:

Post: The Privacy Officer, PPTEF, Level 3, 151 Rathdowne Street, Carlton VIC 3053 
Phone: 1300 346 033 
Email: privacy@incolink.org.au 

ABN 60 646 380 494 © Plumbing & Pipe Trades Entitlement Fund Ltd 2021. All rights reserved.