BERT respects the privacy of individuals.

Protecting personal information has always been important to us, but now the law requires that personal information is protected. Changes to the Commonwealth Privacy Act mean that we must now handle personal information in accordance with Australian Privacy Principles.

This document is a summary of BERT’s policy on the management of personal information about members.

BERT has appointed an Administrator and an income protection insurer to provide services to the Fund. These service providers are authorised to use personal information only to administer contracted services, and are required to treat that information in the strictest confidence.

The personal information collected by BERT is generally the member’s name and address and other contact details, date of birth, occupation, Tax File Number (if the member has chosen to quote it) and union membership (if the member has chosen to supply them). BERT normally collects this information from BERT Claim forms, but may also collect information from a member’s employer. This information is needed to process each member’s records and administer their account.

The above personal information collected by the organisation may be used for the purpose of sending you direct marketing information. Direct marketing information means marketing or promotional information about our services and products. If you do not wish to receive any direct marketing information, you can contact us at any time to request that we stop sending you such information. You can either contact our Privacy Officer (see below) or by following the instructions at the bottom of any direct marketing information, email, or communication that we send to you.

When assessing a member’s eligibility for claims, additional information may be collected from current and previous employers. In addition, if there is any dispute about a member’s entitlement, BERT or the administrator may disclose information about the member to other advisers (for example, legal advisers).

Information about members is normally only disclosed to BERT service providers. However limited information about members is disclosed to other organisations in the circumstances described below.

A significant number of members of BERT are also members of CIP Ltd, CFMEU and Plumbers Union Queensland. BERT conducts a database matching process with these organisations where mutual members are present to ensure each organisation has the most up to date contact details for its members. Where the database search shows different contact details for the same person, each organisation adopts the most recently indicated contact details so that BERT can continue to communicate with its members to ensure their records are kept up to date.

BERT believes it is important that contributions are paid regularly, and any late payments are identified. As part of the process of monitoring contributions, BERT from time to time, supplies Fund Stakeholders with information about the names of members employed by particular employers who are working on sites where an award, industrial agreement or enterprise bargain agreement is in place as well as the amount of contributions that have been made for them over a period of time.

Further information about the nature of personal information that we hold, how it is handled and how to opt out of receiving direct marketing information may be obtained from the funds Privacy Officer, Steven Hack on Telephone 1300 261 114.

Further information about the Privacy Act can be obtained from the Federal Privacy Commissioner’s hotline on 1300 363 992 or online at www.oaic.gov.au.