Your Rights and Responsibilities in Disclosing
You have the right to:
- the confidential and respectful treatment of information about your disability
- access information about an organisation’s equity policies, practices and strategies
- request information from an employer about the collection of your
personal details, including your disability, and how it is used by the
organisation
- choose whether to disclose disability at any point while looking for work.
You also have the following responsibilities in relation to disclosure:
- Disclosure prior to commencement does not remove your
responsibility to disclose any changes in your condition once you are
employed which may impact on your ability to perform the inherent
requirements of the job. Especially if you will require further
work-related adjustments.
- You need to be able to perform the essential requirements of an advertised position.
Employer Responsibilities
Once you have disclosed a disability to your employer, they are
obligated under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) to:
- treat you no less favourably than a person without disability in the same circumstances
- make reasonable adjustments for you where required
- protect you from harassment.
Privacy
Any information you provide to your employer about your disability
may involve sensitive personal information and they must treat it
accordingly.
Before your employer shares information about your disability with
other people (eg. the Human Resources department), they must get your
written consent. You may need to inform your employer regarding this as
the organisation may possibly be unaware of its obligations in this
area.
The Privacy Act 1988 provides for the protection of personal
information held by Commonwealth and ACT agencies and some private
sector organisations. The Act regulates the collection, use and
disclosure, quality and security of personal information.
In addition, the Privacy Act gives you the right to:
- know for what purpose your personal information is being collected
- know whether the collection of your personal info-rmation is required or authorised by or under law
- know to whom your personal information is usually disclosed access a record containing your personal information
- make amendments to your personal information to ensure it is accurate.