Privacy Policy – Relief Teachers

Relief Teachers is committed to the National Privacy Principles (NPPs) as set out at www.privacy.gov.au . In addition, for the purposes of the ACT data held on the system, Relief Teachers is contractually bound to comply with the Information Privacy Principles in so much as they apply to the system.

The following privacy policy describes generally what information is collected, when it may be disclosed and for what purpose. This policy is available to all users via the Relief Teachers home page (www.reliefteachers.com.au ) or upon request.

What information is collected about teachers?

The information collected about teachers includes the following:

· Name

· Postal Address

· Contact phone numbers

· Contact email address

· Preferred method of contact – email or post (not for offers of work)

· AGS number

· Year registered as a teacher

· Date that the teacher is approved to work to in the ACT system

· Subject areas

· Other preferences

· Days of the week available

· Nominated schools for work

· Availability for schools other than nominated schools e.g. in an urgent situation

· Periods of unavailability e.g. will be away for 2 weeks next month

Why is the information collected?

The information is used primarily for the purposes of providing schools nominated by teachers with information as to their availability and contact details. Other contact information is collected to allow for teachers to be sent emails to confirm changes to their information or to update forms generally on an annual basis or other notices about the system as may be required from time to time.

Failure to provide any or all of the information requested may limit the ability of schools to identify a teacher as being available for casual relief work or limit the ability of Relief Teachers to notify the teacher of changes to their information held on the system e.g. automatic notification of certain changes to the teacher’s availability.

Most of the information regarding ACT teachers is supplied directly by the ACT Department of Education and Training (DETS) from information collected by that agency as a part of the approval and administration of casual relief teaching in ACT government schools. Other information is solicited directly from teachers either upon registration online with Relief Teachers or as teachers update details on the system online.

During the use of the system by schools, information is collected on each teacher in relation to which schools and for what periods of time they performed casual relief work.

Who has access to information collected about teachers?

Information about a teacher is accessible by schools nominated by the teacher, other schools if the teacher has consented, and staff of DET (for ACT teachers only).

Access by schools to teacher information is restricted to those persons with an authorised user identity and password. Issuing of school user identities and passwords is managed by DET. School users are advised that information regarding teachers is only for use with the system and for purposes of managing casual teacher bookings.

In addition to schools, nominated DET staff are provided access to ACT teacher records for the purposes of updating other Departmental systems, updating information due to contracts, offers of permanent positions and for generally updating information at the request of the teacher e.g. if the teacher does not have internet access to update the information themselves online.

Information is not provided to other agencies or persons without a teacher’s express permission or unless Relief Teachers is required to do so by law or as allowed under NPP 2.1 (e) to (h). Prior to any such disclosure of ACT data (other than for use outlined below), Relief Teachers is required to get DET approval in writing.

What do we do with the information collected about schools?

Information collected from schools is held on the database for the purposes of allowing Relief Teachers to contact schools.

During the use of the system, information regarding which teachers have worked at each school is also collected. ACT data is available to DET for monitoring purposes.

Information is not provided to other agencies or persons without a school’s express permission or if the information is ACT data, without the written approval of DET.

Your rights to access and alter the information held by us

It is the policy of Relief Teachers to encourage teachers to review, update and query their information regularly. This is done via an internet interface with the teacher having their own unique user identity and password.

Where teachers do not have internet access, DET provide a help desk to access their information and to update information over the phone.

Incorrect information can be corrected online or by contacting DET.

How do we ensure information is of a high quality?

Relief Teachers is committed to ensuring information held on the system is as accurate as possible. To that end, the system is designed to ensure that teachers can update their information online or over the phone and for ACT data for DET staff to be able to update information as needed e.g. where a teacher has been given a contract and is therefore no longer available for casual relief work for a period of time.

In addition to this Relief Teachers may periodically send out requests to teachers to check and update information either online or phone or by completing a hard copy printout of their information.

How is the information secured on the system?

Relief Teachers has implemented a range of measures to ensure the security of information held on its system. This includes unique user identities and passwords, warnings for all users to safeguard passwords and information held on the system and secure socket layer technology to encrypt information between users and the web server.

Does Relief Teachers use identifiers for teachers?

Relief Teachers has adopted its own unique identifiers for teachers on the system. For teachers within the ACT government school system, AGS numbers are used to fulfill obligations to DET in relation to identifying ACT teachers.

Can you enter information anonymously?

No. No one can enter the system without an ID and password. Due to the nature of the system, it is not practicable for users to be anonymous when entering data onto the system.

Can information be transferred to another country?

NPP 9 sets out restrictions on the transfer of data to an organization or individual in a foreign country. Due to the nature of the system, it is possible that if a school staffing officer or a DET staff member were temporarily in another country then they could, using the Internet and their unique user identity and password, access information on the system.

In the unlikely event that this did happen, Relief Teachers believes this to be in the interests of teachers and allowed for under NPP 9(d) and (e).

Is sensitive information about teachers held on the system?

Sensitive information is information or opinion about a person and includes racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a trade union, quality of a teacher’s performance etc.

The only sensitive information held in this regard is how individual schools nominated by the teacher have sorted teachers in terms of preference for work. Sorting may occur at two levels – firstly a teacher may be identified as a regular casual relief teacher for the school, and if so, those teachers may be ranked for the purposes of order of display (if no subject search is specified). This information is specific to each schools and cannot be viewed by other schools. No information as to the performance or reasons for ranking the teacher is collected.

For further information on these policies or complaints about how we handle personal information please contact Relief Teachers