PO Box 7820, Canberra BC ACT 2610
1 February 2024
Our reference: LEX 78069
B
Only by email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear B,
Acknowledgement and Request Consultation Notice
I refer to your request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982
(the FOI Act). You requested access to:
I am submitting a FOI request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, the
request is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act, to gain insight into the
decision-making process regarding the monitoring of staff breaks within the
organization.
I am specifical y seeking access to any correspondence, interactions, reports, briefs,
or documents related to the decision to implement a system for monitoring staff
breaks.
Moreover, I am interested in understanding the communication and involvement of
the CEO and general management in this decision-making process.
Additional y, I am requesting information about how staff are notified and warned
about the monitoring of their breaks, as wel as the procedures in place for
performance management related to this matter.
Please provide any relevant documents, policies, or communication materials
pertaining to staff warnings and performance management in connection with breaks.
Currently your request does not sufficiently identify the documents you require.
Services Australia (the Agency) is formal y consulting with you under section 24AB of the FOI
Act.
This letter is giving you an opportunity to provide us with specific information about the
documents you need. Providing this additional information wil assist the Agency in
processing your request.
If you decide not to provide further information or revise your request, I wil have to refuse
your freedom of information (FOI) request as a 'practical refusal reason' exists. For a more
detailed explanation of what this means, please see Attachment A.
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How to send us a 'revised request'
Before I make a final decision on your request, you can submit a revised request.
Within the next 14 days (consultation period) you must do one of the fol owing, in writing:
withdraw the request
make a revised request, or
tel us you do not want to revise your request.
The consultation process begins the day after the day you receive this notice. Accordingly
your response is expected by 15 February 2024.
If you do not contact us during the consultation period, your matter wil be taken as
withdrawn by operation of the FOI Act. See Attachment A for relevant sections of the FOI
Act.
If you decide to make a revised request you should be specific about the documents you
want. This could help the Agency find the documents.
Contact officer
I am the contact officer for your request. During the consultation period you are welcome to
ask for my help in revising your request. You can contact me:
in writing to the address at the top of this letter, or
via email to xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Note: When you contact us please quote the reference number FOI LEX 78069
Timeframe for processing your request
Your request was received by the Agency on 24 January 2024. The 30 day statutory period
for processing your request commenced from the day after that date. However the time taken
to consult with you now is not included in this 30 day time period.
The timeframe for processing your request may also be extended if we need to consult third
parties or for other reasons. We wil advise you if this happens.
Charges
The Agency wil advise you if a charge is payable to process your request and the amount of
any such charge as soon as practicable. No charge is payable for providing a person with
their own personal information.
Your Address
The FOI Act requires you provide us with an address which we can send notices to. You
have advised your electronic address is xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx.
We wil send al notices and correspondence to this address. Please advise us as soon as
possible if you wish correspondence to be sent to another address or if your address
changes. If you do not advise us of changes to your address, correspondence and notices
wil continue to be sent to the address specified above.
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Administrative Release of Documents
The Agency has administrative access arrangements (arrangements) for the release of
certain documents without the need for a formal FOI request. Unless you advise us
otherwise, in processing your request we may provide you with documents under these
arrangements where appropriate. The arrangements do not extend to information or
materials of third parties. You wil be notified when documents are released to you under the
arrangements.
Disclosure Log
Please note information released under the FOI Act may be published in a disclosure log on
the Agency's website. Section 11C of the FOI Act requires this publication, however it is
subject to certain exceptions, including where publication of personal, business, professional
or commercial information would be unreasonable.
Exclusion of junior staff details
The Agency is working towards ensuring al staff have a choice about whether they provide
their ful name, personal logon identifiers and direct contact details in response to public
enquiries. Where such details are included in the scope of a request, this may add to
processing time and applicable charges as it may be necessary to consider whether the
details are exempt under the FOI Act. On this basis, unless you tel us otherwise, we wil
assume these details are out of scope of your request and they wil be redacted under
Further assistance
If you have any questions please email xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely
Elizabeth
FOI Officer
Freedom of Information Team
FOI and Reviews Branch | Legal Services Division
Services Australia
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PO Box 7820, Canberra BC ACT 2610
Attachment A
What I took into account
You requested access under the FOI Act to the fol owing documents:
I am submitting a FOI request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, the request
is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act, to gain insight into the decision-making
process regarding the monitoring of staff breaks within the organization.
I am specifical y seeking access to any correspondence, interactions, reports, briefs,
or documents related to the decision to implement a system for monitoring staff breaks.
Moreover, I am interested in understanding the communication and involvement of the
CEO and general management in this decision-making process.
Additional y, I am requesting information about how staff are notified and warned about
the monitoring of their breaks, as wel as the procedures in place for performance
management related to this matter.
Please provide any relevant documents, policies, or communication materials
pertaining to staff warnings and performance management in connection with breaks.
As your request currently stands, I am unable to identify some of the documents fal ing within
the scope of your request, and am therefore unable to process your request.
I am submitting a FOI request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, the
request is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act, to gain insight into the
decision-making process regarding the monitoring of staff breaks within the
organization.
I am specifical y seeking access to any correspondence, interactions, reports, briefs,
or documents related to the decision to implement a system for monitoring staff
breaks.
The Agency does not implement a system for monitoring the breaks of Agency employees.
Instead, a workforce management system is utilised to provide functionality for schedules,
AUXil ory codes and other features to support service delivery and staff needs.
Further, the request for ‘documents’, is broad and I am seeking clarification about the type or
nature of the ‘documents’ you are requesting. Alternatively, please advise if your request for
‘reports’ and ‘briefs’ would sufficiently cover your request for documents.
Similarly, please advise whether your request for ‘correspondence’ is met by the reports and
briefs.
Please note, if your request for ‘correspondence’ is to include internal emails we would need
to engage the Agency’s Cyber Operations Branch to conduct the searches. Unfortunately,
conducting a search for emails without defined parameters such as a sender and/or recipient,
and defined keywords relevant to the request, these searches would potential y identify a large
volume of documents that may or may not relate to the subject matter you are seeking.
Furthermore, any emails captured in these searches would require the FOI Team to manual y
review each email to determine if it meets the scope of your request.
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As such, if you would like the scope of your request to include emails, we require you to specify
the sender and/or receiver of such emails and nominate keywords that would reasonably
identify the information you are seeking.
Further, your reference to ‘interactions’ does not sufficiently identify the documents you are
requesting, as it does not identify who the interactions are between, and the format of the
interactions.
Moreover, I am interested in understanding the communication and involvement of
the CEO and general management in this decision-making process.
This point appears to be a request for information and not a document. Requests for
information are general y unable to be processed under the FOI Act, therefore requests
should identify the specific documents you are after.
In addition, it would assist if you could advise which ‘decision-making process’ you are referring
to. Please clarify if you are referring to the decision to implement a workforce management
system (noting this is not a system specific to monitoring staff breaks).
Additional y, I am requesting information about how staff are notified and
warned about the monitoring of their breaks, as wel as the procedures in
place for performance management related to this matter.
As explained above, requests for information are general y unable to be processed under the
FOI Act, therefore requests should identify the specific documents you are after.
As a suggestion, you may like to request any endorsed policies that relate to staff breaks.
Further, if you are requesting the procedure for implementing performance management plans
for Agency employees, this would not be specific to staff breaks.
Please provide any relevant documents, policies, or communication materials
pertaining to staff warnings and performance management in connection with breaks.
This point is worded very similarly to the point above and we consider that our suggestion to
request an endorsed policy concerning the taking of breaks may address both points.
Furthermore, as stated earlier in this letter, the terms ‘documents’ and ‘communications’ are
broad and therefore we require you to be specific about the type of document you are seeking
access to.
If you do not revise your request, I intend to refuse your FOI request as a 'practical refusal
reason' exists under sections 24AA(1)(b) and 24 of the FOI Act. Under the FOI Act, the
practical refusal reason is your request does not satisfy the requirements in section 15(2)(b)
of the FOI Act (identification of documents).
Assistance with your request
In summary, I seek clarification on:
clarifying al unclear parts of your request, being specific about the type and nature of
the documents you are seeking, and
Should you wish to proceed with ‘communications’ such as emails, we require specifics
about the sender and/or recipient and also the keyword search terms. Noting, that this
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may capture a high volume of documents and be considered too voluminous to
process.
Relevant sections of the FOI Act
Section 24AA(1)(b) of the FOI Act provides a practical refusal reason exists in relation to a
request for a document if the request does not satisfy the requirement in section 15(2)(b) of
the FOI Act.
Section 15(2)(b) of the FOI Act provides a request must provide such information as is
reasonably necessary to enable the Agency to identify the documents are being requested.
Section 24AB(6) provides the applicant must, before the end of the consultation period, do one
of the fol owing, by written notice to the Agency:
withdraw the request
make a revised request, or
indicate that the applicant does not wish to revise the request.
Section 24AB(7) of the FOI Act provides the request is taken to have been withdrawn at the
end of the consultation period if:
the applicant does not consult the contact person during the consultation period in
accordance with the notice, or
the applicant does not do one of the things mentioned in subsection (6) before the end
of the consultation period.
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