MAJOR EMPLOYEE PRIVACY BREACH AT BHP

CFMEU Mining and Energy has written to BHP Billiton today expressing concern about multiple breaches of employee privacy affecting members of the union in Queensland and New South Wales.

"It is deeply disappointing that BHP Billiton has failed to address a problem with its payroll system which has resulted in PAYG payment summaries being emailed to incorrect email addresses and employees inadvertently being given access to other workers’ employment and tax records," said CFMEU Mining and Energy President Tony Maher.

The CFMEU has asked BHP Billiton to address the problem immediately.

The letter, to Mike Henry, president operations, BHP Minerals, says: "The response of your company at site level has been dismissive and unsatisfactory, with employees being merely told to delete the offending emails."

Mr Maher said it was unacceptable that BHP had failed to fix a problem which had occurred on numerous occasions and had caused distress to its employees.

"We have asked BHP to take immediate steps to rectify this disclosure of sensitive employee data, notify workers about the steps being taken to fix the problem and offer employees an apology for the privacy breach."

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