14Information sharing

14 Information sharing

(1)  Subject to subsection (2)  –

(a) the Minister, or the Secretary of the Department, may share information with the former employer; and

(b) the former employer may share information with the Minister, or the Secretary of the Department, if requested to do so by the Minister or Secretary.

(2)  The Minister, or the Secretary of the Department, may only share or request information, under subsection (1) , if the Minister or Secretary is satisfied that the information –

(a) is necessary, for the purposes of this Act, to determine one or more of the following:

(i) which employees are to be issued an eligibility notice;

(ii) the terms and conditions of employment for an employee, including the leave and other entitlements of that employee;

(iii) any other prescribed matter; or

(b) is necessary to ensure that the Department has all of the relevant information in respect of a transferred employee, within the meaning of Part 3, for the Department to have a complete employment history for the transferred employee; or

(c) is necessary, or convenient, for any prescribed purpose.

(3)  The former employer must comply with a request made by the Minister, or the Secretary of the Department, under subsection (1) .

(4)  A person providing information under this section –

(a) cannot, by virtue of providing the information, be held to have –

(i) breached any code of professional etiquette or ethics; or

(ii) departed from any accepted standards of professional conduct; or

(iii) contravened any Act; and

(b) to the extent that the person has acted in good faith, incurs no civil or criminal liability in respect of providing the information under this section.