NW v New South Wales Fire Brigades (No 2)

[2006] NSWADT 61

CITATION:	NW v New South Wales Fire Brigades (No 2) [2006] NSWADT 61
DIVISION:	General Division
PARTIES:	APPLICANT NW RESPONDENT New South Wales Fire Brigades
FILE NUMBER:	043031
HEARING DATES:	19/09/2005
SUBMISSIONS CLOSED:	09/19/2005
DATE OF DECISION:	03/03/2006
BEFORE:	O'Connor K - DCJ (President)
CATCHWORDS:	Review of conduct of public sector agency
MATTER FOR DECISION:	Order
LEGISLATION CITED:	Administrative Decisions Tribunal Act 1997 Industrial Relations Act 1996 Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998
CASES CITED:	NW v New South Wales Fire Brigades [2005] NSWADT 73 NR and NP v Roads and Traffic Authority [2004] NSWADT 276 FM v Vice Chancellor, Macquarie University [2003] NSWADT 78 Vice-Chancellor Macquarie University v FM [2005] NSWCA 192 March v Stramare (1991) 171 CLR 506 Rummery and Federal Privacy Commissioner and anor [2004] AATA 1221 D & R Commercial Pty Ltd v Flood (2002) 113 IR 344 Gamble v Alaska Air Pty Ltd [2005] NSWIRComm 1063 RD v Department of Education and Training [2005] NSWADT 195
REPRESENTATION:	APPLICANT J Nolan of counsel instructed by G Lowe, NSW Fire Brigade Employees' Union RESPONDENT S Prince of counsel instructed by P Macken, solicitor, Leigh Virtue & Associates
ORDERS:	1. Pursuant to s 55(2)(c) of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998, that the respondent agency formulate, after appropriate consultation, a statement of practice in relation to the use and disclosure of personal information contained in occurrence books; to do so within 6 months; and to place the statement in the occurrence books or in some nearby location where it can be readily consulted. Any variation of the terms of this order only to occur if approved by the Office of Privacy Commissioner; 2. Applicant to pay the respondent’s costs of counsel’s attendance on 8 August 2005, if he had been briefed prior to 2 August 2005.

1 The Tribunal has found that the respondent agency, New South Wales Fire Brigades (NSWFB), contravened the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (the Privacy Act) in disclosing personal information about the applicant to the Shire of Sutherland: see NW v New South Wales Fire Brigades [2005] NSWADT 73.

2 The brief facts were these. The applicant was as at May 2003 a permanent employee of the Council of the Shire of Sutherland. He had permission to engage in secondary employment, as a retained firefighter with NSWFB attached to the Balgownie Local Unit. A retained firefighter is called up for duty on an as-needed basis. The manager at Sutherland contacted NSWFB because of suspicions he had that the applicant had worked as a firefighter on some days in early 2003 despite having taken sick leave from the Council. If true this was a breach of his leave conditions. The NSWFB replied to the Council’s enquiries by examining the unit’s day book, the occurrence book and advised the Council as to whether he had attended for duty on the days identified by the Council. There was a number of days of attendance recorded in the occurrence book. The…