Privacy policy

Protecting your privacy and maintaining the confidentiality of your personal and sensitive information is important to us. This statement sets out the collection and disclosure of your personal and sensitive information, as well as how you can access the Coal Services Privacy Policy.

Who we are

Coal Services includes the following companies and business units:

• Coal Services Pty Limited provides corporate support services to each business and includes Statistics and Internal Audit
• Coal Mines Insurance Pty Limited (CMI) provides the workers compensation insurance scheme for workers in the NSW coal industry
• CS Health provides occupational medical services to employers and workers in the coal industry
• Mines Rescue Pty Limited (Mines Rescue) provides incident response services and training to coal mines within NSW
• Regulation & Compliance provides gas and other occupational hygiene monitoring and analysis services to industry and conducts training audits under NSW Coal Order 34.

Within this statement, Coal Services Pty Limited, Coal Mines Insurance Pty Limited, and Mines Rescue Pty Limited, and their related entities, are collectively referred to as ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’ or ‘Coal Services’.

The privacy laws

Coal Services complies with the requirements of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (‘Privacy Act’) and the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW) (‘HRIP Act’).

What is personal and sensitive information?

When referring to personal and sensitive information we mean the same thing that is defined under the Privacy Act. Personal information generally means any information or an opinion, whether true or not and whether recorded in material form or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion. Sensitive information is a sub-set of personal information and includes health information.

How and why Coal Services collects information

The amount and type of personal and/or sensitive information we collect and hold depends on the service and business unit you are dealing with. It also extends to the type of our products and services you use. For example, we will need to collect and hold information in order to provide a service or treatment. For workers compensation matters, information will be collected for assessing the claim and administering the policy.

We may collect information in a range of ways including:

• Coal Services collects corporate reports from third parties such as government departments and other Coal Services business units. We may also collect information from employers within the industry. Some of these reports may include personal and sensitive information relating to people or companies that Coal Services provides services to.
• CMI collects personal and sensitive information when someone makes a workers compensation claim such as contact details, doctor’s information and, if applicable, surveillance information to assess whether or not the claim is genuine. This information is generally collected from the injured worker, treating and other doctors, allied health professionals, employers and professional investigators.
• CS Health collects personal and sensitive information to assess a worker’s fitness and ability to work within the coal industry including an injured worker’s return to work requirements and their doctor’s details, as well as information around injuries and conditions. This information is generally collected from the worker, treating doctors, allied health professionals and employers.
• Mines Rescue collects personal and sensitive information about those who have received rescue services or who have attended training courses. This information is generally collected from the person involved or from employers in the industry, and RTOs.
• Regulation & Compliance collects personal information about workers when services are provided and may also collect information from employers within the industry.

Please note:

• Before we can provide any product or service, we will ask your permission to collect and use the information needed. This is done via application forms, administration processes and other ways of collecting information.
• If you don’t provide us with all required information, we may not be able to provide you with the product or service as requested.
• There may be times when it is lawful and practical for you to work with us anonymously, however; by doing so we may not be able to provide you with the product or service as requested.
• We will always try to collect your personal information directly from you. However, there may be instances where we will need to collect your information from other persons or entities. For example, CMI may need to collect your personal or sensitive information from medical service providers in order to process a workers compensation claim.
• Unsolicited information and information received from third parties will be destroyed.

Other ways Coal Services collects information

We collect general statistical information from the Coal Services website, such as the number of visitors to the website, the number of pages viewed, the date, time and duration of visits and how the visitor came to the website. We may also collect Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and internet browser type. This information will not identify you. We do not enable ‘cookies’ on our website, which means we don’t collect any personal information about you.

How Coal Services uses your information

We use your information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles. This means we will only use your information for the reason you provided it, unless we have your consent to use it for another purpose or the use is permitted by law.

Your information is used to provide, manage and administer products and services to you and to operate an efficient and sustainable business. As part of these processes, we may disclose your personal information on a confidential basis to our related entities within Coal Services.

For example, we may use your personal information to contact you (via mail, email, phone or SMS) in order to:

• discuss any matter relating to you or the products and services provided to you
• conduct market research and customer surveys about our products and services
• resolve complaints and answer enquires
• investigate or assess any claims
• advise you of Coal Services’ activities and industry-related news.

Direct Marketing

We may provide you with information about other products and services offered by Coal Services and its entities that may benefit you and your employees. This includes information about training, health, injury management and environmental hygiene.

If you do not want to be contacted for marketing or promotional purposes, you can opt out of these communications when you receive them, or you can contact us at [email protected]

Please note:

• If you request not to receive marketing material we will still contact you in relation to our ongoing relationship with you. For example we will still send you statements, relevant information on products and services you are using with Coal Services.
• Your health information won’t be used for marketing or research purposes unless we have your consent to do so.

Disclosing your information

In order for us to provide, manage and administer our products and services and to operate an efficient and sustainable business, we may be required to disclose your personal or health information to other parties.

This may include disclosure to any persons or entities engaged by Coal Services or acting on our behalf in relation to business for example; Coal Services business units, treating and other doctors, allied health professionals and solicitors, professional investigators, mailing houses and research firms. We may also need to disclose information to employers, other government departments and the relevant Minister and in the instances that may be considered to be life threatening.

If it is necessary to give your information to a third party, we will de-identify your information where possible and appropriate.

We generally do not give your personal or health information to anyone outside Australia.

Coal Services’ Privacy Statement

Our full privacy statement is available here

This includes information about accessing and/or correcting any of your personal and/or health information that we may hold, and how to make a complaint if you believe there has been a breach of privacy.

Contact us

Privacy Contact Officer

Coal Services Pty Limited
GPO Box 3842, Sydney NSW 2001
T: +61 2 8270 3200
E: [email protected]