Employee information provided to ballot agents in Enterprise Agreement bargaining

James Smith made this Freedom of Information request to Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet as part of a batch sent to 42 authorities

This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.

The request was successful.

Dear Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet,

This is a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act.

I request the document(s) which describe the data provided to the external organisation(s) responsible for conducting the ballot(s) for all Enterprise Agreements put to staff for a vote.

The scope of this request is limited only to those ballots undertaken for enterprise agreements which were proposed to take effect after 30 June 2014.

The document shall describe the data given to the ballot agent. For example, employee name, employee identification number, employee email address, etc. I exclude the data for specific employees here; I am only after the 'meta-data'.

If it assists you to treat this as an administrative request for information I encourage you to do so. Otherwise, please consider this a formal FOI request.

Yours faithfully,

James Smith

FOI, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

UNCLASSIFIED

FOI/2017/042

 

Dear Mr Smith

 

Thank you for your email dated 16 February 2017, received by the
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (the Department), in which
you made a request to the Department under the Freedom of information Act
1982 (the FOI Act) in the following terms:

 

I request the document(s) which describe the data provided to the external
organisation(s) responsible for conducting the ballot(s) for all
Enterprise Agreements put to staff for a vote.

 

The scope of this request is limited only to those ballots undertaken for
enterprise agreements which were proposed to take effect after 30 June
2014.

 

The document shall describe the data given to the ballot agent. For
example, employee name, employee identification number, employee email
address, etc.  I exclude the data for specific employees here; I am only
after the 'meta-data'.

 

Timeframe for receiving your decision

 

We received your request on 16 February 2017 and the 30 day statutory
period for processing your request commenced from the day after that date.
You should therefore expect a decision from us by Saturday 18 March 2017,
or the next available business day, being Monday 20 March 2017. The period
of 30 days may be extended in certain circumstances. We will advise you if
there is any extension of time.

 

Charges

 

Agencies may decide that an applicant is liable to pay a charge in respect
of a request for access to documents. If the Department decides that you
are liable to pay a charge, we will send you a preliminary assessment of
the charge as soon as possible.

 

Publication of documents

 

Please note that information released under the FOI Act may later be
published online on our disclosure log at
[1]http://www.dpmc.gov.au/pmc/accountabilit...,
subject to certain exceptions. If you think you might wish to raise any
objections to the publication of any of the information which may be
released to you please contact us by email at [2][DPMC request email]. If you do
wish to object to the publication of information, you would need to
provide supporting reasons.

 

Exclusion of officers’ names and contact details

 

For documents that fall within scope of the request, it is the
Department’s policy to withhold:

·         any person’s signature;

·         the names and contact details of Australian Public Service
officers not in the Senior Executive Service (SES);

·         the mobile or direct numbers of SES officers;

·         the names and contact details of Ministerial staff at a level
below Chief of Staff.

 

The names and other details of SES officers will not be withheld unless
there is some reason for that information to be exempt from release. If
you require signatures, the names and contact details of non-SES officers
or Ministerial staff below the level of Chief of Staff, or the mobile or
direct numbers of SES officers please let us know at [3][DPMC request email] so
the decision-maker may consider; otherwise we will take it that you agree
to that information being excluded from the scope of your request (that
is, the information will be treated as irrelevant and redacted from any
documents for release).

 

We will write again when the Department has more information. Further
information on FOI processing can be found at the website of the Office of
the Australian Information Commissioner at
[4]http://www.oaic.gov.au/foi-portal/about_....

 

Yours sincerely

 

FOI Adviser

Access and Administrative Review | Honours, Symbols and Legal Policy
Branch

Government Division | Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

p. +61 2 6271 5849

e. | [5][DPMC request email] | [6]www.dpmc.gov.au

PO Box 6500 CANBERRA ACT 2600

 

 

 

______________________________________________________________________

IMPORTANT: This message, and any attachments to it, contains information
that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional or
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you
must not review, copy, disseminate or disclose its contents to any other
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References

Visible links
1. http://www.dpmc.gov.au/pmc/accountabilit...
2. mailto:[DPMC request email]
3. mailto:[DPMC request email]
4. http://www.oaic.gov.au/foi-portal/about_...
5. mailto:[DPMC request email]
6. http://www.dpmc.gov.au/

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FOI, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

UNCLASSIFIED

PM&C reference: FOI/2017/042

 

Dear Mr Smith

 

I am writing in relation to your FOI requests with the Department of the
Prime Minister and Cabinet – ref: FOI/2017/042, due 18 March 2017 and
FOI/2017/050, due 28 March 2017.

 

Regrettably, the Department is currently not in a position to finalise the
decision for FOI/2017/042 and we are seeking your consent to a 10-day
extension of time to the processing period, in accordance with section
15AA of the FOI Act. If you agree, this will mean that both FOI matters
will be due on the same date.  We will endeavour to notify you of the
decisions prior to this extended date if possible but have requested this
amount of time to finalise the Department’s decision.

 

We kindly request you confirm your consent to the extension by way of
return email. If you are not inclined to agree to an extension of time, we
ask that you let us know as soon as possible so the decision-maker may
consider seeking an extension of time from the Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner, in accordance with section 15AB of the FOI Act.

 

Should you have any queries or wish to discuss, please contact us by
telephone on 02 6271 5849 or by email to [1][DPMC request email].

 

Kind regards,

 

FOI Adviser

Access and Administrative Review | Honours, Symbols and Legal Policy
Branch

Government Division | Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

p. +61 2 6271 5849

e. | [2][DPMC request email] | [3]www.dpmc.gov.au

PO Box 6500 CANBERRA ACT 2600

 

______________________________________________________________________

IMPORTANT: This message, and any attachments to it, contains information
that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional or
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message,
you
must not review, copy, disseminate or disclose its contents to any other
party or take action in reliance of any material contained within it. If
you
have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately
by
return email informing them of the mistake and delete all copies of the
message from your computer system.
______________________________________________________________________

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[DPMC request email]
2. mailto:[DPMC request email]
3. http://www.dpmc.gov.au/

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Dear FOI Officer

Thank you for your email.

I agree to the 10 day extension you have requested.

Yours sincerely,

James Smith

FOI, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

1 Attachment

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Mr Smith

 

Please find attached correspondence relating to your FOI request with the
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet- ref: FOI/2017/042

 

Kind regards, Debbie

 

 

Debbie Arnold | Senior FOI Adviser

Access and Administrative Review Section | Honours and Legal Policy Branch

Government Division | Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

p. 02 6271 5849 |e. [1][email address]

[2]www.dpmc.gov.au | [3]www.indigenous.gov.au

PO Box 6500 CANBERRA ACT 2600

 

______________________________________________________________________

IMPORTANT: This message, and any attachments to it, contains information
that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional or
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message,
you
must not review, copy, disseminate or disclose its contents to any other
party or take action in reliance of any material contained within it. If
you
have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately
by
return email informing them of the mistake and delete all copies of the
message from your computer system.
______________________________________________________________________

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.dpmc.gov.au/
3. http://www.indigenous.gov.au/

hide quoted sections