The Business Council says important guardrails were added to the Digital Work Systems Bill as it was rushed through New South Wales Parliament last night, however it remained deeply flawed and unnecessary, with extraordinary new powers handed to union bosses.
Business Council Chief Executive Bran Black said the new laws were a dramatic expansion of union rights of entry into every workplace in New South Wales.
“These new laws are deeply flawed, unprecedented and unnecessary,” Mr Black said.
“They grant unions the right to access internal emails, payroll and HR files, health records, customer databases and financial platforms, from small businesses to hospitals, construction sites and major infrastructure projects.”
Mr Black thanked the Opposition, Animal Justice Party, Shooters Fishers and Farmers, and Libertarian MLCs for trying to secure and securing, important amendments that introduce minimum guardrails that make a bad bill slightly less bad than what was first proposed.
“This Bill should have never passed, however I’m thankful for these hard-fought guardrails that will mean businesses have at least some opportunity to prepare for intrusive union access to their digital documents.”
“The Government has promised that businesses will now be thoroughly consulted in the setting of access rules, with amendments last night guaranteeing the new union access powers will not commence until guidelines are defined and in place.”
The amendments include:
- A mandatory 48 hours’ notice period before digital access is exercised, which is the very minimum time required to allow a business to take reasonable steps to protect private and non-relevant employee, customer and commercial data.
- The new union powers will be subject to guidelines, with businesses involved in setting those guidelines.
- The new union powers will not be activated until the guidelines are in place.
- The guidelines can include industry-specific rules for union access, to ensure a one-size-fits-all approach is not taken.
- A comprehensive 12 month review will be undertaken.
Independent polling of 1,021 NSW workers and voters shows 75 per cent are concerned about data breaches and personal information being accessed or exposed, while just 5 per cent believe unions should investigate workplace technology. Polling also found 44 per cent of people say this bill will have a negative impact on jobs and investment in New South Wales.
“At a time when NSW needs to accelerate housing supply and attract capital to lift productivity and living standards, it is critical that the forthcoming guideline consultation genuinely protects workers’ data, consumer information and commercially sensitive material,” Mr Black said.
ENDS
About the Digital Work Systems Bill
This Bill creates broad new rights in the NSW Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act) relating to the regulation, access and inspection of “digital work systems”.
As passed, the Bill:
- Defines a ‘digital work system’ broadly as an algorithm, artificial intelligence, automation or online platform.
- Creates a new primary duty of persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) to ensure the health and safety of workers is not put at risk from the use of digital work systems.
- Creates a new specific duty in relation to work allocated by digital systems and mandatory considerations the business must turn its mind to.
- Most critically, creates a new right for union entry permit holders to require “reasonable assistance” to access and inspect digital work systems when investigating a suspected WHS contravention (subject to SafeWork NSW guidelines). In practice, this means the Bill affords union officials easy access to a wide range of workplace digital systems, which could include internal emails, personal information, HR and payroll systems, rostering tools, customer databases, financial records and operational platforms (noting that customer, employee and personal data may be inextricably intertwined in any number of digital work systems).